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THE 


POPULAR  SCIENCE 

MONTHLY 


EDITED  BY  J.  McKEEN  CATTELL 


PACIKIC   COAST   NUNIBKR 
Edited   by    HARRY    BEAL   TORREY 


Astronomy  on  the  Pacific    Coast.       Professor  Kussell  Tracy  Craw- 

FORD  . 209 

The  Biological  Laboratories  of  the  Pacific  Coast.     Professor  William  E. 

KiTTER 223 

The  Last  Wild  Tribe  of  California.     Professor  T.  T.  Waterman     .        .  233 

Extinct  Faunas  of  the  Mohave  Desert,  their  Significance  in  a  Study  of  the 

Origin   and   Evolution  of   Life    in  America.      Professor   John  C. 

Merriam 245 

Insects  of  the  Pacific.  Professor  Vernon  L.  Kellogg  ....  265 
The  Phyiiological  Aspects  of  California  for  the   Botanist.     Professor 

George  J.  Peirce 270 

Social  Legislation  on  the  Pacific  Coast.  Professor  William  F.  Ogburn  276 
The  Volcanic  Activity  of  Lassen  Peak,  California.     Professor  Euliff  S. 

Holwat 290 

The  Progress  of  Science: 

Science  on  the  Pacific  Coast ;  The  Organization  of  the  Pacific  Division  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science;  The  California  Meeting  of 
the  American  Association       .  .  .  .  .  .  ,  .  .307 


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THE  SCIENCE  PKESS 

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THE 

POPULAR    SCIENCE 

MONTHLY. 


MARCH,  1915 


ASTEONOMY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

By  Professor  RUSSELL  TRACY  CRAWFORD 

THIS  subject  brings  instantly  to  the  mind's  eye  the  Lick  Observatory 
on  Mount  Hamilton,  and  the  Solar  Observatory  on  Mount  Wil- 
son, as  they  are  two  of  the  greatest  astronomical  observatories  in  the 
world,  and  probably  the  best  generally  known  of  all.  The  one  is  an 
asset  of  the  Pacific  coast,  probably  accidentally,  the  other  was  placed 
there  as  a  result  of  mature  deliberation  after  thorough  investigation  of 
many  locations.  In  addition  to  these  two  wonderful  institutions  there 
is  in  process  o^  construction  a  third  great  observatory  near  Victoria, 
B.  C,  which,  when  completed,  will  contain  the  second  largest  reflecting 
telescope  in  the  world.  It  is  evident,  therefore,  that  conditions  on  this 
coast  are  extremely  favorable  for  developing  the  practical  side  of 
astronomy.  On  the  other  hand,  the  theoretical  side  of  the  subject  is  by 
no  means  to  be  lost  sight  of,  as  I  shall  point  out. 

In  the  early  days  before  the  erection  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  the 
only  astronomical  work  on  the  Pacific  Coast  was  that  done  by  the  TJ.  S. 
Coast  and  Geodetic  Survey  under  the  able  direction  of  the  late  Pro- 
fessor George  Davidson.  This  was  not  astronomical  work  as  such,  but 
merely  the  solving  of  such  astronomical  practical  problems  as  were  inci- 
dent to  the  regular  work  of  the  survey.  The  first  real  scientific  astro- 
nomical investigations  came  with  the  advent  of  the  Lick  Observatory. 

This  institution  is  the  gift  6f  James  Lick,  a  California  pioneer,  who 
had  amassed  a  fortune  of  several  million  dollars. 

On  July  16,  1874,  he  executed  a  deed  of  trust  which  devoted  the  entire  sum 
to  public  purposes. 

Among  the  provisions  of  the  deed  is  one  that  directed  the  trustees 

to  expend  the  sum  of  seven  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  purpose  of  con- 
structing ...  a  powerful  telescope,  superior  to  and  more  powerful  than  any 
telescope  ever  yet  made,  with  all  the  machinery  appertaining  thereto.  .  .  . 

He  left  the  trustees  certain  discretionary  powers  as  to  its  location 

VOL.  LXXXVI. — 15. 


2:io.  .",  .'.".THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

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ASTRONOMY  ON  THE  PACTFI(JAOASt{  \     "       :^ix\ 

with  the  proviso^  however,  that  "  the  same  must  he  located  within  the 
state  of  California." 

Just  why  Lick  provided  for  this  telescope  and  observatory  will  prob- 
ably never  be  known.  While  I  can  not  recall  my  authority,  I  have  a 
very  distinct  recollection  of  having  heard  it  stated  that  the  idea  was 
first  suggested  to  him  and  frequently  urged  upon  him  by  Professor 
George  Davidson.  Concerning  this  point,  however,  the  director  of  the 
Lick  Observatory  writes,^ 

The  question,  "  What  induced  Lick  to  provide  for  a  great  telescope?  " 
has  never  been  satisfactorily  answered;  but  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that  he 
came  to  this  determination  without  conscious  suggestion  from  others. 

After  having  several  sites  tested  the  trustees  decided  upon  Mount 
Hamilton,  California,  as  the  best  location  for  the  observatory.  Active 
work  was  begun  in  1879,  and  the  observatory  was  completed  and  ready 
for  regular  work  in  1888.  The  plant  cost  all  but  $90,000  of  the  amount 
set  aside  for  it.  The  observatory  and  this  balance  were  turned  over  to 
the  regents  of  the  University  of  California  by  the  trustees  June  1,  1888 ; 
and  since  then  it  has  been  an  integral  part  of  the  university. 

The  principal  instruments  of  this  observatory  are  the  great  36-inch 
refractor,  a  6-inch  Eepsold  meridian  circle,  provided  by  the  Lick  Trust, 
and  the  36^-inch  reflector,  a  gift  from  Edward  Crossley,  Esq.,  of  Eng- 
land. Besides  these  there  is  a  host  of  smaller  instruments  and  auxiliary 
apparatus.  I  can  not  go  into  details  here  concerning  the  instruments, 
but  I  wish  to  mention  one  which  has  an  important  bearing  upon  the 
subject  of  this  article.  It  is  that  the  magnifying  power  of  the  great 
refractor  may  be  made  to  be  as  much  as  3,000  diameters.  When  one 
considers  that  everything  in  the  line  of  sight  of  the  telescope  is  magni- 
fied by  this  amount,  it  becomes  evident  that,  to  be  efficient,  the  telescope 
must  be  located  at  a  site  where  the  atmosphere  through  which  the  line 
of  sight  passes  is  extremely  stead}^  for  any  little  atmospheric  disturb- 
ance will  be  magnified  to  this  amount  and  destroy  what  is  called  the 
"seeing,"  giving  a  poorly  defined  image  of  the  star  or  object  under 
observation.  And  it  is  principally  on  account  of  the  splendid  atmos- 
pheric conditions  on  the  Pacific  coast,  especially  on  some  of  the  moder- 
ately high  mountains,  which  make  excellent  "seeing"  possible  that 
observational  astronomy  here  has  been  able  to  make  such  tremendous 
strides. 

For  the  efficient  use  of  a  great  telescope  its  location  must  be  in  a 
region  of  great  atmospheric  calm,  where  the  sky  is  clear  and  trans- 
parent, with  little  wind,  and  where  the  number  of  days  and  nights  of  a 
year  during  which  such  conditions  do  not  exist  is  small.  For  some 
reason,  the  "  seeing  "  conditions  at  Mount  Hamilton  during  the  day  are 
not  of  the  best;  but  at  night  excellent  conditions  are  found  on  a  large 

1  "  A  Brief  Account  of  the  Lick  Observatory  of  the  T^niversity  of  Califor- 
nia," prepared  by  the  Director  of  the  Observatory.     Fourth  edition,  1914. 


•2-I.2- 


'iS[E'\  pOPt'LAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


Lick  Observatory  fkom  the  West. 


majority  of  the  nights  of  a  year,  and  many  nights  yield  "seeing"  that 
might  be  considered  perfect.  X  glance  at  the  illustrations  showing  the 
mountain  as  seen  from  the  east  and  from  the  west  will  make  it  evident 
at  once  why  these  conditions  obtain.  With  the  exception  of  a  saddle 
running  eastward,  the  land  slopes  away  rapidly  from  the  summit  down 
into  deep  valleys,  so  that  there  is  but  little  opportunity  for  heat  waves 
radiated  from  surrounding  land  to  mount  to  the  atmosphere  above  the 
observatory  and  create  atmospheric  disturbances.  The  mountain  is  not 
so  verj^  high  (4,209  feet  above  mean  sea  level),  but  it  is  high  enough  to 
hold  the  observatory  in  an  atmosphere  free  from  dust,  smoke  and  fog. 
Being  near  the  ocean,  fogs  are  very  frequent  at  certain  seasons  over  the 
valleys  in  this  region.  It  is  seldom,  however,  that  they  mount  high 
enough  to  envelop  the  observatory.  Many  evenings  and  early  mornings 
fog  completely  fills  the  surrounding  valleys,  so  that  the  observatory  seems 
to  rest  on  an  island  in  a  vast  sea  of  fog.  Often  peaks  only  a  few  hun- 
dred feet  lower  than  Mount  Hamilton  are  covered  by  the  fog,  yet  the 
work  with  the  great  instruments  is  uninterrupted.  The  picture  "Fog 
in  the  Valleys  at  Sunset"  gives  a  better  idea  of  this  condition  than  I 
can  describe.  In  such  a  location  as  this  the  36-inch  refractor  can  be 
used  with  its  maximum  power  a  large  portion  of  the  time.  In  less 
favorable  localities  even  larger  instruments  would  not  be  so  efficient. 

It  is  one  thing  to  have  an  excellent  plant,  and  it  is  another  thing 
to  have  men  skillful  enough  to  operate  such  a  plant  effectively.  A  very 
proficient  marksman  can  not  do  very  much  damage  with  a  blunderbuss. 


ASTRONOMY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 


213 


and  one  unskilled  will  not  be  able  to  produce  any  good  results  from  the 
best  modern  artillery;  but  an  expert  behind  a  Krupp  can  produce  a 
high  percentage  of  effective  hits.  And  so  it  is  with  the  Lick  Observa- 
tory. JSTot  only  is  it  a  wonderful  engine  of  science,  but  also  it  has  been 
very  fortunate  in  the  astronomers  who  have  operated  it. 

I  can  not  here  go  into  the  details  of  all  that  has  been  done  at  the 
Lick  Observatory,  but  the  following  extracts  from  "A  Brief  Account 
of  the  Lick  Observatory  of  the  University  of  California,"  prepared  by 
the  director  of  the  observatory,  1914,  give  an  idea  of  the  principal 
things  of  general  interest  that  liave  been  accomplished  in  the  quarter  of 
a  century  of  its  existence : 

1.  To  the  four  bright  satellites  of  Jupiter  discovered  by  Galileo  in  1610,  the 
Lick  Observatory  has  added  four  satellites. 

2..  Twenty-uiiie  comets  have  been  discovered.  Nineteen  of  these  were  un- 
expected, and  ten  were  periodic  comets  whose  return  had  been  predicted. 

3.  The  first  great  success  in  photographing  comets  and  the  Milky  Way 
were  made  here. 

4.  About  4,400  double  star  systems  have  been  discovered. 

5.  Irregularities  in  the  motions  of  the  first  magnitude  star  Procyon  had  led 
the  celebrated  German  astronomer  Bessel,  three  quarters  of  a  century  ago,  to 
predict  that  Procyon  had  a  companion  sun  revolving  around  it.  This  compan- 
ion was  discovered  with  the  Lick  telescope. 

6.  Spectographic  observations  of  stellar  motions  have  shown  that  the  solar 
system  is  traveling  through  space,  with  reference  to  the  general  stellar  system, 
at  a  speed  of  about  twelve  miles  per  second. 


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Fog  in  the  Valleys  at  Sunset,  Mt.  Hamilton. 


2  14  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  JIONTHLY 

7.  The  Mount  Hamilton  and  Santiago2  spectographic  observations  of  stel- 
lar motions  have  shown  that  stars  effectively  young  are  traveling  slowly,  middle- 
aged  stars  more  rapidly,  and  old  stars  more  rapidly  still;  that  is,  that  the 
velocities  of  the  stars  increase  with  their  eifective  ages. 

8.  Observations  have  established  that  those  nebute  known  as  planetary 
nebulae  are  traveling  through  space  with  average  speeds  even  higher  than  the 
average  speeds  of  the  stars.  It  had  previously  been  supposed  that  these  nebulae 
represented  a  stage  of  existence  antecedent  to  the  stellar  age.  The  high  veloci- 
ties of  these  objects  have  created  the  opinion  that  they  have  more  probably  been 
formed  from  stars  which  have  been  overtaken  by  catastrophes,  such  as  collisions 
with  other  celestial  objects. 

9.  The  North  Pole  Star  was  found  to  be  a  triple  star,  in  1899,  by  means  of 
spectrographie  observations.  The  first  magnitude  star  Capella  was  discovered  to 
consist  of  two  stars  revolving  around  their  center  of  mass  in  104.1  days,  the  two 
nearly  equal  components  being  inseparable  in  our  largest  telescopes. 

10.  In  the  same  manner  about  250  spectroscopic  binary  stars  have  been 
found  at  Mount  Hamilton  and  Santiago. 

11.  A  study  of  the  orbits  of  spectroscopic  binary  stars  has  established  that 
the  component  stars  in  a  system  whose  spectrum  indicates  early  age  are  rela- 
tively very  close  together,  requiring  very  short  periods  of  revolution,  and  that 
the  orbits  are  nearly  circular.  In  systems  whose  spectra  show  them  to  be  of 
greater  effective  ages,  the  distances  separating  the  components  are  successively 
greater,  on  the  average,  and  their  orbits  are  more  eccentric.  The  observed 
facts  on  the  subject  are  fully  confirmative  of  existing  mathematical  theories  of 
the  evolution  of  double  star  systems. 

12.  The  Crossley  reflecting  telescope  established  for  the  first  time  the  tre- 
mendous advantage  of  this  form  of  telescope  in  the  photography  of  certain 
classes  of  celestial  objects,  such  as  nebulag,  star  clusters,  etc. 

13.  Before  the  Crossley  reflector  was  in  use  about  10,000  nebulae  had  been 
discovered  at  various  observatories.  A  few  dozens  of  these  were  known  to  be 
spiral  in  form.  The  Crossley  photographs  led  to  the  discovery  of  many  hun- 
dreds of  additional  nebulae  in  the  extremely  small  part  of  the  sky  covered  by 
the  photographs.  It  was  a  simple  matter  to  calculate  that  certainly  120,000  and 
possibly  half  a  million  nebute  await  discovery  whenever  time  can  be  spared  for 
the  Crossley'  reflector  to  undertake  this  work.  These  photographs  led  to  the 
unexpected  discovery  that  a  majority  of  the  nebula;  are  of  spiral  form — un- 
doubted evidence  of  their  rotation. 

14.  The  extensive  series  of  photographs  of  the  minor  planet  Eros  and  sur- 
rounding stars,  with  the  Crossley  reflector,  led  to  a  new  and  accurate  determina- 
tion of  the  distance  from  the  earth  to  the  sun. 

15.  Eight  total  solar  eclipses  have  been  successfully  observed  by  expeditions 
whose  expenses  were  defrayed  by  friends  of  the  observatory. 

16.  It  has  been  shown  that  the  new  stars  appearing  in  recent  years  have 
been  converted  into  nebulae,  and  later,  in  many  cases,  into  extremely  faint  stars 
of  apparently  normal  condition. 

17.  Many  thousands  of  extremely  accurate  positions  of  the  stars  have  been 
secured  with  the  meridian  circle. 

IS.  Very  extensive  observations  of  double  stars,  comets,  planets,  and  satel- 
lites have  been  made. 

19.  A  large  number  of  orbits  have  been  computed  for  visual  double  stars, 
spectroscopic  binary  stars,  comets,  and  asteroids. 

20.  Extensive  additions  have  been  made  to  our  knowledge  of  the  spectra  of 
nebulae,  comets,  new  stars,  and  stars  of  special  interest. 

2  Santiago,  Chile,  is  the  location  of  the  D.  0.  Mills  Observatory,  which  is 
administered  by  the  director  of  the  Lick  Observatory. 


ASTRONOMY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 


215 


21.  Important  studies  of  the  spectra  of  spiral  nebulaj  and  star  clusters  have 
been  inaugurated. 

22.  An  atlas  of  the  moon  was  made  in  the  first  year  of  the  observatory's 
existence,  on  the  basis  of  photographs  obtained  with  the  large  telescope. 

23.  The  motions  of  approach  and  recession  of  about  1,500  naked-eye  stars, 
distributed  over  the  entire  sky,  have  been  observed  with  the  36-inch  refractor  at 
Mount  Hamilton  and  the  D.  O.  Mills  reflector  at  Santiago. 


The  3G-IXCH  Refractor  of  tke  Lick  Observatory. 


24.  Spectroscopic  observations  at  Mount  Hamilton  and  on  the  summit  of 
Mount  Whitney  have  shown  that  the  atmosphere  of  Mars  is  of  low  density,  prob- 
ably much  less  dense  at  the  surface  of  Mars  than  the  earth's  atmosphere  is  at 
the  summit  of  the  highest  peak  in  the  Himalaya  Mountains.  These  observa- 
tions have  established  likewise  that  the  quantity  of  water  vapor  in  the  atmos- 
phere of  Mars  above,  say,  a  square  mile  of  its  surface,  must  be  very  slight  as 
compared  with  the  quantity  of  water  vapor  in  the  earth's  atmosphere  above  an 
equal  area. 


2l6 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


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ASTRONOMY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST  217 

The  wise  economical  policy  of  this  observatory  is  to  engage  prin- 
cipally in  those  investigations  which  can  not  be  carried  on  with  smaller 
and  less  effective  instruments.  Much  that  could  be  done  there  is  left  to 
smaller  institutions.  The  great  instruments  are  used  only  for  the  prob- 
lems that  demand  their  great  power.  And  these  are  quite  sufficient  to 
keep  them  in  constant  use. 

Turning  now  to  the  Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory  we  find  a 
unique  institution.  As  its  name  implies^  it  is  an  observatory  erected 
primarily  for  the  study  of  the  sun. 

In  1902,  Dr.  S.  P.  Langley  addressed  a  communication  to  the  Carnegie  In- 
stitution recommending  the  establishment  of  an  observ^atory  at  a  very  high  alti- 
tude for  the  special  purpose  of  measuring  the  solar  radiation. 

This  recommendation  resulted  ultimately  in  the  erection  of  the 
Solar  Observatory  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  by  which  it  is  supported. 
Various  sites  in  Arizona  and  in  southern  California  were  tested,  and  the 
summit  of  Mount  Wilson  (nearly  6,000  feet  above  sea-level)  near  Pasa- 
dena in  southern  California  was  selected.  In  the  choice  of  a  site  for 
this  observatory  excellent  "  seeing  "  conditions  in  day  time  as  well  as  at 
night  were  of  primary  importance.  Such  conditions  were  found  to 
exist  on  Mount  Wilson. 

For  director  of  the  observatory  a  very  wise  choice  was  made  in  Dr. 
George  E.  Hale.  It  is  due  principally  to  his  genius  and  untiring  efforts 
that  this  wonderful  plant  has  been  designed  and  brought  to  its  present 
high  state. 

Dr.  Hale  points  out  that  the  term  "  solar  observatory ''  is  to  be  used 

in  a  broad  sense, 

since  it  is  not  intended  to  exclude  from  the  program  certain  investigations 
of  stars  which  are  of  fundamental  importance  in  any  general  study  of  the  prob- 
lem of  stellar  evolution.  For  the  sun  is  a  star,  comparable  in  almost  every  re- 
spect' with  many  other  stars  in  the  heavens,  and  rendering  possible,  through  an 
intimate  knowledge  of  its  own  phenomena,  the  solution  of  some  of  the  most 
puzzling  questions  in  the  general  problem  of  stellar  evolution.  Conversely,  how- 
ever, the  stars  are  suns,  and  if  we  would  know  the  past  and  future  conditions  of 
the  sun,  we  must  examine  into  the  physical  condition  of  stars  which  represent 
earlier  and  later  stages  of  development.  It  will  be  seen  that  there  is  ample 
ground  for  the  inclusion  in  the  equipment  of  a  solar  observatory  of  certain  in- 
struments especially  designed  for  the  study  of  stellar  problems. 

Such  an  observatory,  whose  primary  object  is  "  to  apply  new  instru- 
ments and  methods  of  research  in  a  study  of  the  physical  elements  of 
the  problem  of  stellar  evolution,"  must  of  necessity  have  as  comple- 
mentary parts  of  its  equipment  a  physical  laboratory  and  an  adequate 
machine  shop.  These  two  parts  have  been  supplied  and  are  located  in 
Pasadena.  Here  not  only  are  smaller  pieces  of  apparatus  made  and 
repaired,  but  also  the  enormous  discs  of  glass  for  the  60-inch  and  the 
100-inch  reflectors  have  been  figured  and  tested. 

The  instrumental  equipment  of  the  solar  observatory  is  naturally 


2i8  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

very  comislete.  In  addition  to  the  numerous  smaller  pieces  of  apparatus 
there  may  be  mentioned  in  particular  the  Snow  telescope,  the  two  tower 
telescopes,  and  the  monster  reflectors. 

The  Snow  telescope  consists  of  two  24-inch  concave  mirrors  of 
different  focal  lengths  (when  either  one  is  in  use  the  other  is  easily  put 
out  of  the  way)  mounted  well  above  the  ground  in  such  a  way  as  to 
throw  the  sun's  rays  horizontally  under  a  louvre  covering  to  the  spectro- 
scope or  other  apparatus,  where  they  are  analyzed.  Soon  after  this 
instrument  was  in  operation  Dr.  liale  conceived  the  idea  of  mounting 
the  coelostat  at  the  top  of  a  tower,  and  sending  the  rays  vertically  down- 
ward to  the  spectroscope  so  as  "to  avoid  disturbance  of  definition  caused 
by  heated  currents  of  air  arising  from  the  ground."  He  therefore  had 
designed  and  erected  a  65-foot  tower  for  this  purpose.  This  was  very 
successful.  Then  desiring  a  greater  focal  length  than  could  be  obtained 
with  this  height,  bo  had  built  a  second  tower  150  feet  high.  Under  this 
tower  a  well  was  excavated  to  the  depth  of  nearly  80  feet,  thus  providing 
for  a  possible  focal  length  of  about  230  feet.  The  150-foot  tower  is  of 
ingenious  construction.  It  is  a  tower  within  a  tower.  The  main  struc- 
ture which  supports  the  coelostat  at  the  top  is  completely  sheathed  in  an 
encasing  tower  which  supports  the  dome,  so  that  there  is  complete  pro- 
tection from  the  wind.  When  one  looks  at  the  tower  he  sees  only  the 
framework  of  the  sheathing.  This  great  tower  telescope  is  a  most  effi- 
cient and  satisfactory  instrument. 

There  is  no  larger  telescope  in  operation  to-day  than  the  60-inch 
reflector,  the  reflecting  surface  of  which  was  ground  by  Mr.  Ritchey  in 
the  shop  at  Pasadena.  The  remarkable  photographs  of  nebulas  that 
have  been  made  with  it  speak  loudly  in  praise  of  its  efficiency.  This 
instrument  is  soon  to  be  supplanted  in  its  proud  position  of  size  by  the 
100-inch  reflector,  the  gift  of  Mr.  J.  D.  Hooker,  which  is  nearing  com- 
pletion. The  figuring  of  the  enormous  block  of  glass  has  also  been  done 
by  Mr.  Eitchey.  The  present  state  of  the  building  to  hold  this  great 
reflector  is  shown  in  the  accompanying  picture.  The  completion  of  this, 
the  largest  telescope  in  the  world,  will  undoubtedly  mark  an  epoch  in 
observational  astronomy.  Its  light-gathering  power  will  be  nearly  three 
times  as  great  as  that  of  the  60-inch,  and  more  than  seven  times  that  of 
the  Crossley  reflector  of  the  Lick  Observatory  which  in  its  turn  fifteen 
years  ago  marked  an  epoch.  If  "half  a  million  nebulae  await  dis- 
covery "  with  the  Crossley,  think  of  the  possibilities  awaiting  this  giant ! 

In  the  ten  years  of  its  existence  the  results  of  the  investigations  of 
the  Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatory  have  been  very  numerous  and  most 
valuable.  I  have  not  space  here  even  to  enumerate  them.  Every  an- 
nual report  of  the  director  contains  a  summary  of  the  principal  results 
of  the  year.  The  number  of  such  results  is  noticed  to  increase  from 
year  to  year.  In  the  last  Annual  Report  (1913)  seventy-two  results  are 
summarized.     Most  of  these  are  of  such  a  technical  nature  that  they  are 


ASTRONOMY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 


219 


of  interest  only  to  the  scientist.  Of  the  results  of  general  interest  I 
may  mention  the  discovery  of  magnetic  fields  in  sunspots ;  the  fact  that 
"  the  sun  is  a  magnet,  with  magnetic  poles  at  or  near  the  poles  of  rota- 
tion"; "the  polarity  of  the  sun  corresponds  with  that  of  the  earth — a 
conclusion  which  may  prove  to  have  an  important  bearing  on  theories  of 
terrestrial  magnetism";  "the  evidence  that  has  been  amassed  in  sup- 


TiiE  150-FOOT  Tower,  Mt.  Wilson  Solar  Obsekvatoey. 

port  of  the  view  that  light  is  absorbed  in  space."  The  last,  as  Dr.  Hale 
points  out 

not  only  offers  an  explanation  of  otherwise  obscure  phenomena,  but  pronaises  to 
give  what  appears  to  be  the  only  possible  method  of  measuring  the  most  pro- 
found depths  of  the  universe. 

The  investigations  of  the  solar  observatory  are  carried  on  not  only 
by  the  regular  staff,  but  also  by  other  scientists  who  are  invited  to  make 
use  of  the  wonderful  equipment  there. 


220 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


Peesext  State  uf  Klilding  i-ok  Housing  the  100-ixcii  Rei-lector,  Mount  Wilso.v 

Solar  Observatory. 


At 


■HRSMl 


'•xU  ^  ^**^-.— 


The  Glass  Disc  eor  the  IOU-incii  Mirror,  in  the  Tiisadena  Laboratory  of  the  Mouut 

Wilson  Solar  Observatory. 


ASTRONOMY  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST  221 

The  Lipk  and  the  Mount  Wilson  Solar  Observatories  are  the  only 
ones  at  present  on  the  Pacific  coast  whose  energies  are  devoted  wholly 
to  investigations.  A  third  will  soon  be  in  operation.  This  is  to  be  an 
observatory  eight  miles  north  of  Victoria,  B.  C,  to  house  the  72-inch 
reflector  of  the  Canadian  government.     Dr.  Plaskett  says : 

Word  has  been  received  from  Paris  that  the  disc  for  the  mirror  is  ready 
for  shipment  and  there  is  every  prospect  of  the  telescope  being  ready  for  erec- 
tion next  year. 

This  was  written  in  June,  1014.  A  later  report  tells  us  that  the 
disc  has  been  received  at  Allegheny,  and  that  work  upon  the  mirror  has 
been  begun.  When  completed  this  will  be  the  second  largest  reflector 
in  the  world. 

In  addition  to  these  there  are  on  the  Pacific  coast  several  small  ob- 
servatories connected  with  educational  institutions  whose  principal  use 
is  to  supplement  by  practical  work  the,  instruction  in  astronomy  in 
these  institutions.  Among  these  may  be  mentioned  the  observatories 
of  Pomona  College,  of  Santa  Clara  College,  Chabot  Observatory  of  the 
Oakland  High  School  (the  Chabot  Observatory  is  soon  to  be  supplied 
with  a  20-inch  refractor).  University  of  Washington,  and  the  Students' 
Observatory  of  the  University  of  California.  Besides  these  there  is  a 
small  government  observatory,  a  branch  of  the  U.  S.  Naval  Observatory, 
located  at  the  naval  station  on  Mare  Island,  used  principally  for  time 
service  and  the  regulation  of  the  chronometers  of  the  ships  of  the  Navy. 
Finally,  there  are  a  few  small  private  observatories  wherein  some  ama- 
teur astronomers  delight  to  "  follow  the  courses  of  the  stars." 

Theoretical  as  well  as  practical  astronomy  is  well  fostered  on  the 
Pacific  coast.  Its  chief  development  is  to  be  found  in  the  Berkeley 
Astronomical  Department  of  the  University  of  California.  Here  has 
been  organized  a  thorough  school  of  astronomy,  than  which,  according 
to  the  late  Professor  Simon  Newcomb,  there  is  none  better.  Not  only 
is  the  science  taught  at  Berkeley,  but  also  theoretical  investigations  are 
continually  being  carried  on. 

It  is  only  natural  that  in  a  region  possessed  of  such  institutions  as 
I  have  mentioned  there  should  be  a  considerable  interest  in  astronomy 
among  the  people.  This  interest  is  manifested  principally  through  an 
organization  known  as  the  Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific  with 
headquarters  in  San  Francisco.  This  society  resulted  from  the  interest 
taken  by  a  group  of  amateur  astronomers  and  photographers  in  the  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun  visible  in  California,  January  1,  1889.  It  has  a 
membership  of  several  hundred  who  are  interested  in  a  general  way  in 
the  science  of  astronomy.  In  addition  to  its  meetings  the  Society 
issues  bi-monthly  its  Publications  of  the  Astronomical  Society  of  the 
Pacific.  The  Society  has  been  given  two  funds  the  interest  from  which 
is  to  be  devoted  to  giving  certain  medals.     One  of  these  is  known  as  the 


222  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

Donohue  Comet  Medal.  One  such  medal  is  awarded  to  every  discoverer 
of  a  new  comet.  The  other  is  the  Bruce  Gold  Medal,  and  is  looked  upon 
as  one  of  the  most  important  medals  that  can  be  awarded  to  an  astron- 
omer. It  is  awarded  "for  distinguished  services  to  astronomy."  The 
medal  itself  is  a  beautiful  work  of  art,  and  is  valuable  both  intrinsically 
and  for  what  it  symbolizes.  The  great  value  that  astronomers  attribute 
to  this  medal  can  be  appreciated  better  when  the  manner  of  making  the 
award  is  understood.  The  process  is  as  follows:  The  directors  of  six 
observatories  (Harvard,  Yerkes,  Lick,  Berlin,  Paris,  and  Greenwich) 
are  each  requested  to  nominate  three  men  worthy  to  receive  the  medal 
in  any  given  year.  After  these  nominations  are  in  it  is  usually  found 
that  six  or  seven  names  are  presented  to  the  directors  of  the  Society 
from  which  then  their  choice  for  the  medal  must  be  made.  If  an  award 
is  made,  therefore,  it  is  to  some  one  nominated  by  one  or  more  (usually 
more)  of  the  directors  of  six  of  the  leading  observatories  of  the  world. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  then  that  the  recipient  is  justly  entitled  to  this 
medal  "for  distinguished  services  to  astronomy."  That  it  is  most 
highly  prized  by  its  recipients  I  quote  from  a  typical  letter  of  accept- 
ance of  the  medal.  The  medallist  writes,  "  I  regard  this  distinction  as 
the  highest  an  astronomer  can  receive.  .  .  ." 

The  results  of  the  investigations  at  the  Lick  Observatory  are  issued 
in  the  Bulletins  of  the  Lick  Observatory  for  short  articles,  and  in  the 
Publications  of  the  Lick  Observatory  (Volume  XII.  just  issued)  for 
the  more  extended  work.  Results  from  the  Berkeley  astronomical  de- 
partment are  also  issued  in  the  Bulletins  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  and 
one  volume  (VII.)  of  the  Publications  of  the  Lick  Observatory  is  de- 
voted to  its  investigations. 

The  Contributions  from  the  Solar  Observatory,  Mount  Wilson,  Cali- 
fornia, issued  by  the  Carnegie  Institution  of  Washington,  give  to  the 
world  the  results  of  the  investigations  carried  on  at  the  observatory  on 
Moimt  Wilson  and  in  the  laboratories  in  Pasadena. 

The  Publications  of  the  Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific  I  have 
already  mentioned.  The  list  of  astronomical  publications  on  the  Pacific 
coast  is  made  complete,  I  think,  when  I  mention  finally  the  Publication 
of  the  Astronomical  Society  of  Pomona  College,  an  interesting  quarterly 
popular  magazine  issued  by  the  astronomical  students  of  Pomona 
College. 

In  preparing  this  account  of  astronomy  on  the  Pacific  coast  I  have 
dra'ttTi  freely  from  "A  Brief  Account  of  the  Lick  Observatory"  (fourth 
edition),  and  from  the  annual  reports  of  the  director  of  the  Mount 
Wilson  Solar  Observatory.  In  conclusion  I  wish  to  express  my  thanks 
to  the  directors  of  these  two  observatories  for  their  kindness  in  provid- 
ing the  illustrations. 


BIOLOGICAL  LABORATORIES  223 


THE  BIOLOGICAL  LABOEATOEIES  OF  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

By   Peofessok  WM.   E.   RITTER 

THE  study  of  marine  botany  and  zoology  has  gained  a  foothold  on 
the  Pacific  coast  of  the  United  States  in  the  brief  period  during 
which  biology  has  been  institutionally  naturalized  in  this  part  of  the 
world,  that  promises  well  for  the  future. 

Seaside  laboratories  have  been  established  at  three  main  centers  of 
population :  at  Puget  Sound,  in  central  California,  and  in  southern 
California.  At  the  extreme  north  the  University  of  Washington,  in 
cooperation  with  several  other  institutions,  has  a  laboratory  at  Friday 
Harbor  on  San  Jaan  Island.  In  central  California  the  Timothy  Hop- 
kins Laboratory  on  Monterey  Ba}^,  belonging  to  the  Lei  and  Stanford 
Junior  University,  has  now  been  in  operation  for  twenty- three  years; 
and  near  by  is  the  Herzstein  Laboratory  owned  "by  the  University  of 
California.  On  the  coast  of  southern  California  are  the  Scripps  Insti- 
tution for  Biological  Eesearch  at  La  Jolla,  near  San  Diego,  securely 
founded  because  permanently  endowed,  and  in  the  vicinity  of  Los 
Angeles  laboratories  at  Venice  and  Laguna  Beach  are  manfully  striv- 
ing toward  permanency.  The  Scripps  Institution  is  a  research  depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  California.  The  laboratory  at  Venice  is 
being  fostered  by  the  University  of  Southern  California  and  that  at 
Laguna  Beach  by  Pomona  College. 

With  this  bird's-eye  view  of  what  the  country's  long  western  sea 
frontage  presents  in  the  way  of  effort  to  turn  to  intellectual  account 
the  riches  of  life  of  this  part  of  the  Pacific  ocean,  we  may  proceed  to  a 
somewhat  closer  look  at  what  is  being  done. 

A  student  of  marine  life  who  has  considered  the  geography  of  Puget 
Sound  even  from  afar,  does  not  need  to  be  told  that  it  is  a  great,  richly 
stocked  aquarium  of  both  animals  and  plants.  Almost  completely  land- 
locked though  sufficiently  open  at  both  ends  to  enable  the  water  to  flow 
through  it  with  each  run  of  tides,  beset  with  innumerable  irregular 
islands,  and  rock-shored  everywhere,  a  piece  of  the  sea  could  hardly  be 
more  ideally  circumstanced  for  all  kinds  of  organisms  adapted  to  such 
conditions.  For  several  decades  the  prodigality  of  life  in  the  Soimd 
has  aroused  the  enthusiasm  of  naturalists,  resident  and  visiting. 

Credit  for  the  first  efforts  to  create  a  laboratory  for  making  use  of 
this  wealth  of  life  is  due  to  Professor  Trevor  Kincaid,  of  the  University 
of  Washington.  After  several  years  of  preliminary  collecting  and  re- 
connoitering  by  Professor  Kincaid  and  his  students,  Friday  Harbor  was 
selected  in  1903  as,  on  the  whole,  the  most  favorable  place  for  a  per- 


224. 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


I'LGKT    t5UU-NO    M.via.NE    f>TATiu.N,    x\i    Friday    Harbor,    f<an    Juau    Island,    Washingtoa. 


manent  laborator}'.  This  salmon-cannery  hamlet  of  a  few  hundred 
people  situated  on  the  eastern  side  of  the  large,  partly  agricultural  San 
Juan  island,  is  distant  from  Seattle  about  four  or  five  hours'  run  for 
the  small  steamers  "which  constitute  the  transportation  system  of  the 
islands  of  the  Sound.  That  the  natural  conditions  of  this  location  are 
good  for  the  kind  of  work  which  the  laboratory  aims  to  do,  there  can 
be  no  doubt.  The  distance  from  the  mainland  ports  is  something  of 
an  inconvenience,  but  the  isolation  would  seem  to  be  a  perpetual  security 
against  contamination  of  the  water  by  a  large  city  and  much  shipping; 
and  this  is  a  consideration  of  great  importance  for  such  a  laboratory. 

For  a  number  of  years  the  station  went  through  the  experience 
familiar  to  such  undertakings,  that  of  playing  cuckoo  so  far  as  housing 
is  concerned.  In  this  instance  the  alien  home  was  an  abandoned  salmon 
cannery. 

But  the  persistence  and  enthusiasm  of  Professor  Kincaid  and  his 
colleagues  finally  bore  fruit  to  the  extent  of  a  four-acre  piece  of  land, 
the  gift  of  Captain  Xewhall,  of  Friday  Harbor,  as  a  permanent  site; 
a  new  laboratory  building  about  seventy-five  by  thirty  feet  in  floor  area, 
two  stories  high;  a  mess  house  about  forty  feet  square;  and  forty-five 
platform  tents  for  living  quarters.  The  buildings  were  provided  by 
the  University  of  Washington  on  money  appropriated  by  the  state  legis- 
lature. The  laboratory  proper  situated  at  the  very  water's  edge,  indeed, 
partly  over  the  water  on  piles,  is  at  the  foot  of  a  beautiful  wooded  bank 
that  reaches  up  one  hundred  feet  or  more  at  an  angle  of  full  forty-five 
degrees  from  the  back  door  of  the  building.  The  first  floor  of  the 
laboratory  is  mostly  one  large  room  in  which  are  the  salt-water 
aquaria  and  faeili'ties  for  experimental  work  of  various  sorts.  On 
the  second  floor  are  nine  private  workrooms  and  a  large  room  thirty 


BIOLOGICAL  LABORATORIES  225 

feet  by  thirty  feet  which  is  used  for  various  laboratory  and  otlier  pur- 
poses. Besides  the  work  space  in  the  laboratory  building  a  laboratory 
for  botanical  study  lias  been  fitted  up  in  the  basement  of  the  commons 
building. 

The  station  owns  a  fleet  of  a  dozen  row  boats,  but  as  yet  no  power 
boat,  dependence  been  placed  so  far  on  hired  boats  for  the  heavier  bot- 
tom collecting. 

This  station  stands  alone  among  its  kind  on  the  Pacific  coast  in 
aiming  to  be  intercollegiate  in  constitution  and  maintenance.  While, 
as  already  indicated,  the  "  plant "  has  been  furnished  by  the  state,  and 
is  owned  by  the  university;  and  while  the  state  is  at  present  supplying 
nearly  all  the  maintenance  funds,  about  $3,000  a  3^ear,  a  system  of  co- 
operating institutions  is  nevertheless  being  worked  out.  At  present  the 
Universities  of  Kansas  and  Oregon  and  the  Washington  State  Normal 
School  at  Billingham  are,  I  believe,  the  only  institutions  in  the  partner- 
ship, but  the  plan  is  being  earnestly  pushed  and  other  schools  and 
colleges,  notably  Eeed  College  of  Portland,  Oregon,  seem  likely  to 
enter. 

So  far  the  laboratory  has  not  aimed  at  much  beyond  formal  instruc- 
tion and  general  information-getting  on  the  part  of  those  who  assemble 
there;  and  sessions  have  been  restricted  to  a  few  weeks  in  the  summer. 
The  session  of  1913  saw  an  attendance  of  about  one  hundred  teachers 
and  students,  these  being  drawn  from  a  wide  area  of  the  northwestern 
United  States.  This  considerable  number  may  be  taken  to  indicate 
the  reality  of  the  demand  for  opportunity  for  this  kind  of  study  in  this 
region.  No  doubt  this  demand  will  increase  and  will  soon  expand  to 
include  advanced  specialized  studies  and  genuine  investigation  as  well 
as  elementary  instruction  and  general  information.  Since  the  begin- 
ning of  the  session  of  1914  Professor  T.  C.  Prye,  of  the  department  of 
botany  of  the  University  of  Washington,  has  been  director  of  the  station, 
Professor  Kincaid  having  turned  his  interest  and  efforts  in  other 
directions. 

Traveling  down  the  coast  from  Puget  Sound  to  central  California, 
one  finds  the  Timothy  Hopkins  laboratory  at  Pacific  Grove  on  Monterey 
Bay  belonging  to  the  Leland  Stanford  Junior  University.  .  This  is  the 
pioneer  among  the  marine  laboratories  on  the  Pacific  coast,  its  life 
being  practically  coexistent  with  that  of  the  university  of  which  it  is  a 
part.  It  began  its  work  in  1892,  only  about  a  year  after  the  university 
opened  its  doors.  It  is  also  the  most  commodiously  housed  of  the 
western  stations,  and,  in  keeping  with  its  greater  age  and  size,  has  fur- 
nished facilities  to  more  biologists  than  any  of  the  other  Pacific  coast 
laboratories.  • 

About  eighty  students  can  be  accommodated  in  the  station's  two 
buildings.     There  are  four  general  laboratories,  one  lecture  room,  and 

VOL.  LXXXIV.  — 16. 


226  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

seventeen  private  laboratories  for  investigators.  The  buildings,  of 
wood,  are  both  two  stories  high,  well  lighted  and  amply  supplied  with 
running  water,  both  salt  and  fresh.  According  to  the  directors,  about 
seventy-five  investigators  have  made  use  of  the  laboratory  since  its 
foundation  and  something  like  six  hundred  and  fifty  students  of  various 
grades  have  received  instruction.  Eegular  class  instruction  is  given  each 
summer  by  university  professors  from  the  departments  of  zoology,  bot- 
any and  physiology.  Although  the  buildings  are  not  formally  open 
during  the  rest  of  the  year,  investigators  are  usually  able  by  special 
arrangement  to  get  the  use  of  the  laboratories  at  almost  any  time. 

The  laboratory  was  a  gift  of  Timothy  Hopkins,  of  Menlo  Park, 
Calif.,  but  is  dependent  on  the  university  for  maintenance  funds, 
library,  and  equipment.  Students  who  receive  class  instruction  pay 
fees,  the  money  derived  from  this  source  being  applied  to  the  running 
expenses  of  the  institution. 

Professors  C.  H,  Gilbert  and  0.  P.  Jenkins,  of  the  departments  of 
zoology  and  physiology,  respectively,  have  been  from  the  beginning 
joint  directors  of  the  laboratory,  but  the  courses  of  instruction  have 
been  mostly  given  in  later  years  by  the  younger  men  of  the  university, 
Professors  Harold  Heath,  F.  M.  McFarland  and  W.  B.  Price  having 
been  especially  faithful  and  efficient  in  this  capacity. 

Pacific  Grove  is  an  exceedingly  advantageous  location  for  a  marine 
station,  particularly  one  with  the  aims  which  the  Hopkins  laboratory 
set  for  itself;  namely,  those  of  providing  facilities  for  investigations 
on  littoral  animals  and  plants  and  those  inhabiting  the  bottom  in  rela- 
tively shallow  waters ;  and  of  giving  instruction  to  elementary  students. 

So  far  as  the  writer's  somewhat  extensive  observations  on  the  Pacific 
littoral  of  North  America  has  gone,  no  other  point  on  the  whole  coast, 
with  the  possible  exception  of  Yakutat  Bay  in  southeastern  Alaska,  has 
a  rocky  shore  fauna  and  flora  of  greater  luxuriance,  whether  as  to 
individuals  or  species,  than  has  the  southern  shore  of  Monterey  Bay. 
This  richness  of  life,  taken  along  with  the  accessibility  of  the  locality 
from  a  populous  center,  and  the  all-year-round  congeniality  of  tlie 
climate,  has  made  the  Hopkins  laboratory  an  important  factor  in  the 
promotion  of  biological  science  in  this  part  of  the  country.  It  is  greatly 
to  be  hoped  that  at  no  distant  day  the  laboratory  will  become  possessed 
of  sufficient  funds  to  enable  it  to  be  fully  prepared  to  receive  investi- 
gators and  students  at  any  time  of  the  year,  and  not  be  obliged  to  re- 
strict its  activities  so  largely  to  the  summer  months. 

The  Herzstein  laboratory,  also  at  Pacific  Grove,  is  quite  different  in 
aim  and  scope  of  activities  from  the  Hopkins.  It  was  a  gift  to  the 
department  of  physiology  of  the  University  of  California  by  Dr.  Morris 
Herzstein,  of  San  Francisco,  the  primary  purpose  of  which  was  to  pro- 
vide a  sea-side  working  place  where  Professor  Jacques  Loeb  could 
prosecute  certain  of  his  investigations. 


BIOLOGICAL  LABORATORIES  227 

In  keeping  with  the  relatively  simple  technic  of  the  studies  which 
have  made  this  biologist  famous,  the  Herzstein  laboratory  is  small  and 
inexpensive.  It  is  a  plain,  one-story  wooden  building,  about  forty-five 
feet  square,  divided  into  three  fairly  good-sized  rooms,  two  small  store 
rooms  and  a  dark  room.  It  is  provided  with  an  alternating  electric 
current,  and  running  fresh  water,  but  not  with  gas  or  salt  water.  The 
small  quantities  of  sea  water  needed  are  brought  to  the  laboratory  from 
the  nearby  sea  by  hand.  A  good  supply  of  glassware  for  experimenta- 
tion on  simple  animals  is  always  on  hand. 

As  already  indicated,  the  laboratory  is  operated  in  close  connection, 
so  far  as  research  is  concerned,  with  the  department  of  physiology  at 
Berkeley.  No  provision  is  made  or  is  hardly  possible  for  formal  in- 
struction or  for  any  considerable  number  of  investigators,  or  for  much 
range  of  investigation. 

At  present  Professor  S.  S.  Maxwell,  as  head  of  the  department  of 
physiology,  also  has  charge  of  the  laboratory.  Professor  Loeb's  use  of 
it  has  not  ceased,  although  he  has  severed  his  connection  with  the  Uni- 
versity of  California.  He  has  spent  considerable  time  at  Pacific  Grove 
during  the  last  two  years. 

Going  on  down  the  coast  to  southern  California,  the  undertakings 
at  Venice  and  Laguna  Beach  must  first  be  noticed  in  following  the 
geographical  order  of  treatment.  Although,  as  intimated  in  the  open- 
ing paragraph,  these  have  not  attained  a  strong  and  permanent  exist- 
ence, they  have  been  useful  as  adjuncts  to  the  teaching  facilities  of  the 
colleges  to  which  they  belong,  the  University  of  Southern  California, 
and  Pomona  College.  The  Venice  Station  possesses  a  power  launch  of 
sufficient  size  and  equipment  to  make  possible  a  good  amount  of  collect- 
ing at  sea.  The  director  of  the  station  is  Albei"t  B.  Ulrey,  professor 
of  zoology  in  the  University  of  Southern  California. 

The  suggestion  may  be  ventured  here  that  the  California  coast  south 
of  Point  Conception  ought  to  have  one  good  teaching  sea-side  laboratory 
which  should  have  the  support  of  all  the  schools  and  colleges  in  the 
south.  We  biologists  of  the  southwest  must,  I  think,  allow  that  we  are 
aspiring  less  wisely  than  are  our  colleagues  of  the  northwest  in  the  very 
important  matter  of  promoting  sea-side  studies  by  young  men  and 
women. 

The  Scripps  Institution  for  Biological  Eesearch  being  situated  at 
the  extreme  southern  end  of  the  Pacific  coast  line  of  the  United  States 
must  accept  last  place  in  this  survey. 

A  somewhat  full  account  of  this  station  was  published  by  the  writer 

in  1912,^  and  the  accessibility  of  this  makes  an  extended  statement  here 

superfiuous. 

1 ' '  The  Marine  Biological  Station  of  San  Diego,  Its  History,  Present  Con- 
ditions, Achievements  and  Aims,"  Univ.  of  Calif.  Publ.  in  Zool.,  Vol.  9,  No.  4, 
March  9,  1912,  pp.  137-248. 


2  28  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

Though  privately  founded  and  for  some  time  without  organic  con- 
nection with  any  other  institution,  its  property  and  endowment  were 
deeded  to  the  regents  of  the  University  of  California  in  1911,  thus 
making  it  a  department  of  the  universit3\ 

The  main  elements  in  its  physical  being  are  177  acres  of  land  with 
a  half  mile  of  ocean  front  in  the  city  of  San  Diego  about  two  miles 
north  of  the  suburb  of  La  Jolla;  a  fireproof  reinforced  concrete  labo- 
ratory building  47  by  74  feet,  two  stories  high ;  a  20,000  gallon  concrete 
tank  for  sea  water  with  tank  house;  thirteen  cottage  residences,  one  of 
which  is  a  commodious  two-story  structure;  one  carefully  planned  and 
well-built  animal  house  for  experimental  breeding;  and  an  eighteen-ton 
motor  boat,  the  Alexander  Agassiz,  equipped  for  biologic  and  oceano- 
graphic  work  at  sea. 

The  laboratory  contains  twelve  individual  research  rooms,  six  of 
which  are  furnished  with  aquaria  constructed  of  concrete,  iron  and  plate 
glass.  There  is  also  a  general  aquarium  room  with  concrete  tanks  and 
glass  aquaria. 

A  room  40  by  32  feet  on  the  second  floor  contains  a  well-displayed 
collection  of  the  marine  life  of  the  San  Diego  region.  On  the  first 
floor  in  a  combined  collection  and  reagent  room  are  arranged  several 
thousand  bottles  of  research  collections,  chiefly  of  pelagic  organisms. 

The  library,  consisting  of  about  3,500  bound  volumes  and  a  much 
larger  number  of  pamphlets,  occupies  three  rooms  on  the  second  floor, 
one  of  which  serves  as  a  journal  and  reading  room.  The  books  are 
fully  classified,  catalogued  and  arranged,  and  as  the  number  is  increas- 
ing rapidly  the  library  is  becoming  a  fairly  good  one  for  the  kinds  of 
investigation  prosecuted  by  the  institution.  The  university  library  at 
Berkeley  still  has  to  be  called  on,  however,  for  many  works,  particularly 
when  studies  which  fall  outside  the  program  of  the  institution  are  being 
carried  on. 

At  present  tlie  institution  has  an  annual  income  of  about  $20,000, 
$10,500  of  which  come  from  the  Scripps  endowment,  $7,500  from  the 
state  of  California,  and  the  balance  from  miscellaneous  sources,  chiefly 
rentals. 

The  staff  consists  of  four  resident  investigators,  three  of  whom  are 
biologists  and  one  an  oceanographer ;  a  business  manager  who  acts  also 
as  master  of  the  Agassiz;  a  scientific  secretary  who  serves  likewise  as 
assistant  librarian ;  an  engineer  and  keeper  for  the  Agassiz;  and  a  helper 
for  the  buildings  and  grounds.  In  addition,  there  is  a  non-resident 
contingent  of  the  research  staff  consisting  at  present  of  four  biologists. 
These  are  able  by  reason  of  their  vocations  to  be  in  La  Jolla  only  at 
irregular  intervals  and  for  short  periods,  but  are  regularly  engaged 
upon  the  institution's  program.  They  receive  fixed  compensations  for 
their  work. 


BIOLOGICAL  LABORATORIES  229 

The  brief  statement  to  be  here  made  about  the  policy  of  this  institu- 
tion will  be  facilitated  and  possibly  rendered  more  interesting  by  putting 
it  in  the  form  of  a  trenchant  comparison  between  the  two  exclusively 
research  stations  of  the  Pacific  coast ;  the  Herzstein  laboratory  at  Pacific 
Grove  and  the  Scripps  Institution. 

For  full  two  thousand  years  there  have  been  among  the  inquiring 
two  conceptions  or  faiths  about  the  nature  of  the  world,  particularly  the 
living  part  of  it,  that  stand  over  against  each  other  with  a  sharpness 
and  apparently  irreconcilable  antagonism  which,  seen  in  their  fullness, 
are  highly  poetic  as  well  as  profoundly  scientific.  These  two  concep- 
tions flow  from  the  university  experience  of  the  unity,  on  the  one  hand, 
and  the  diversity,  on  the  other,  of  nature.  Because  of  the  first  some 
men  have  conceived  that  at  its  core  nature  is  One  and  Simple ;  and  with 
an  irresistible  faith  they  have  sought  to  penetrate  to  the  single  essence 
or  substance  held  by  this  philosopher  to  be  Spirit,  by  that  Matter,  the 
grasping  of  which  should  constitute  the  discovery  of  the  great  mystery 
of  existence. 

This  kind  of  faith  has  found  no  finer  expression  in  the  modern  era 
of  all-pervading  scientific  analysis  than  in  Tennyson's 

Flower  in  the  crannied  wall, 
I  phiek  you  out  of  the  crannies; — 
Hold  you  here,  root  and  all,  in  my  hand. 
Little  flower — but  if  I  could  understand 
"What  you  are,  root  and  all,  and  all  in  all 
I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is. 

The  distinguished  scientist  whose  investigations  the  Herzstein  labo- 
ratory was  built  primarily  to  further  would  probably  agree  that  were 
his  ultimate  biological  ideas  and  aims  to  be  expressed  in  the  poet's  way, 
these  lines  would  need  as  little  alteration  as  any  that  could  be  found. 
He  might  wish  to  have  the  first  line  so  altered  as  to  give  the  flower's 
place  to  the  sea  urchin ;  and  would  probably  want  "  God "  replaced  by 
"'Mechanism"  or  some  term  which  disguises  its  anthropomorphism  as 
effectually.  But  the  great  basal  idea  " .  .  .  if  I  could  understand  What 
you  are  ...  all  in  all,  I  should  know  what  God  and  man  is,"  would 
presumably  need  no  alteration. 

And  why  should  not  devout  ehemico-physical  biologist  and  devout 
theist  alike  have  each  his  unfaltering  faith  in  substance.  One  or  at  most 
very  few,  All-pervasive,  All-potent,  Eternal?  For  has  not  each  in  his 
own  sphere  and  his  own  way  discovered  to  the  deepest  depths  of  his 
nature  a  few  mighty  realities  underneath  the  vast,  bewildering  maze  of 
phenomena  ? 

No  one  can  look  upon  the  simple  laboratory  under  the  pine  trees  at 
Pacific  Grove  and  contemplate  the  idea  for  which  it  stands  without 
seeing  true  grandeur  in  its  simplicity. 


230 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


BIOLOGICAL  LABORATORIES  231 

But  is  the  oneness  of  the  world  with  its  demonstrably  underlying 
few  substances  and  forces,  whether  these  be  held  to  be  material  or 
spiritual,  more  real  than  the  diversity  of  it?  Surely  it  is  not  so  far  as 
the  every-day  lives  of  every-day  people  are  concerned.  And  the  view 
that  science  is  common  sense  refined  and  systematized  withstands  all 
objection.  The  fisherman's  Albacore  endures  whatever  test  of  reality 
may  be  applied  to  the  biologist's  sea  urchin  eggs  or  anything  contained 
in  them.  It  is  impossible  to  define  any  given  specimen  of  living  sub- 
stance so  as  to  ascribe  to  it  ultimateness  without  ascribing  ultimateness 
to  the  living  animal  itself  to  which  the  specimen  pertains  if  the  same 
rules  of  defining  be  adhered  to  throughout.  But  if  every  part  of  the 
living  world  is  as  real  and  as  ultimate  as  any  other  part,  it  is  futile  to 
expect  to  fully  understand  some  portions  of  it  by  knowing  other  portions 
of  it.  The  theory  that  any  amount  of  understanding,  even  complete 
understanding,  of  a  flower  or  a  sea  urchin  would  give  complete  under- 
standing of  man,  to  say  nothing  of  God,  is  contrary  to  the  fundamental 
nature  of  things  and  of  knowledge.  Nor,  speaking  chemico-physically, 
can  any  amount  of  understanding  of  the  substances  of  which  an  organism 
is  composed  give  complete  understanding  of  the  organism  itself. 

Vastly  contributory  to  the  understanding  of  organic  beings  as  are 
chemico-physical  investigations  upon  them,  indeed  impossible  though  it 
is  to  gain  exhaustive  knowledge  of  them  in  any  aspect  of  their  lives 
without  such  investigations,  every  truly  vital  chemico-physical  problem 
of  organisms  is  two  phased:  how  do  the  chemico-physical  attributes  of 
the  constituent  substances  act  upon  and  so  explain  the  organisms;  and 
what  particular  structures  and  activities  are  the  chemical  substances 
caused  to  manifest  by  being  constituents  of  and  used  by  the  particular 
organisms  ? 

And  so  it  is  revealed  that  the  familiar  dictum  "all  life  is  one" 
must  not  be  understood  to  mean  that  living  nature  has  only  one  life; 
but  rather  that  there  is  some  thing  in  common  among  all  the  myriad 
things  that  live,  namely,  the  half  dozen,  less  or  more,  chemical  simples 
now  known  to  compose  a  living  being.  The  diversities  of  living  nature 
are,  consequently,  as  "ultimate  problems"  as  are  its  uniformities;  and 
the  biological  institution  which  should  set  for  its  goal  final  solution  of 
the  problems  of  the  organic  world  would  be  vast  and  complex  and  costly 
beyond  any  thing  yet  created  or  likely  to  be. 

The  administrative  body  of  a  research  foundation  in  biology  which 
should  so  understand  biology  would  always  have  before  it  this  compound 
question:  what  particular  subject  or  group  of  related  subjects  at  this 
particular  time,  in  this  particular  locality,  and  under  existing  limita- 
tions of  resources  would  best  be  investigated? 

The  Scripps  Institution  conceives  its  purposes  in  this  way,  at  least 
while  its  present  director  stands  as  spokesman  of  its  purposes.     Just 


\ 


232  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

now  its  small  resources  are  being  devoted  to  certain  aspects  of  the  mode 
of  life  of  organisms  in  nature ;  to  the  nature  and  relationships  of  natural 
races;  and  to  the  influence  of  natural  environments  upon  organisms, 
particularly  as  to  the  heritability  of  such  influences.  No  other  subjects 
are,  in  the  belief  of  the  management,  of  greater  moment  to  present-day 
biolog}',  and  various  circumstances  make  their  study  by  the  institution 
peculiarly  practicable.  But  the  managing  board  have  no  delusions  as  to 
the  uniquely  "  burning  "  character  of  the  questions  under  investigation, 
or  as  to  its  having  reached  the  threshold  of  the  Ultimate  j\tystery  of 
Life  and  Death.  Its  profound  belief  in  the  importance  of  biologic  truth 
to  the  welfare  of  humankind  is  of  such  sort  that  it  knows  that  many 
other  problems'  being  studied  by  many  other  men  and  other  institutions 
are  no  less  vital  than  those  engaging  its  efforts;  and  that  problems  of 
to-morrow,  next  year,  next  decade,  next  century,  while  different  from 
those  of  to-da}^  will  be  no  less  numerous  and  no  less  insistent  than  those 
of  to-day.  It  holds  every  item  of  positive  knowledge  of  the  living  world 
essential  to  the  scientific  interpretation  of  that  world;  that  such  inter- 
pretation alone  can  beget  a  right  attitude  toward  that  world;  and  that 
the  high  level  of  man's  development  which  we  call  civilization  is  wholly 
dependent  upon  a  right  attitude  on  the  part  of  the  largest  number 
possible  of  the  community  toward  all  things  that  live. 


TEE  LAST  WILD  TRIBE  OF  CALIFORNIA  233 


THE   LAST   WILD   TEIBE   OF   CALIFOENIA 

By   Professoe  T.   T.   WATERMAN 

IN  the  fall  of  1908  some  attention  was  aroused  in  the  press  by  a  story 
to  the  effect  that  hunters  had  encountered  in  the  state  of  California 
a  tribe  of  Indians  who  were  still  in  the  stone  age.  The  idea  of  a  "  wild  " 
tribe  in  a  thickly  settled  region  like  California  was  so  novel  that  it  served 
to  awaken  a  very  wide  interest.  The  Indians  themselves,  however,  had 
meanwhile  vanished.  Some  three  years  later  an  individual  who  had  all 
the  appearance  of  belonging  to  this  group  was  apprehended  in  northern 
California.  He  was  put  in  jail,  and  a  few  days  later  turned  over  to  the 
university.  Since  then  he  has  been  received  everywhere  as  the  last  sur- 
vivor of  his  tribe.  The  whole  series  of  incidents  deserves  some  expla- 
nation. I  think  it  ought  to  be  said  at  the  outset  that  the-story  as  given 
in  the  papers  of  that  period  is  quite  true.  The  individual  captured  in 
1911  was  a  surviving  member  of  a  stone-age  tribe.  He  is  still  alive  and 
well  at  the  university;  and  he  has  given  from  time  to  time  extremely 
interesting  accounts  of  the  history  of  his  people. 

I  should  like  to  explain  first  of  all  the  rather  unusual  career  of  this 
tribe,  and  how  they  happened  to  remain  "wild."  The  occupation  of 
California  by  the  whites  is  usually  pictured  as  a  peaceful  transaction. 
We  hear  little  of  Indian  wars  in  connection  with  this  state.  The  Cali- 
fornia tribes  pursued,  as  it  happened,  a  more  or  less  settled  mode  of  life. 
Being  non-migratorj^,  they  were  peculiarly  open  to  attack  and  reprisal 
for  any  resistance  they  could  have  offered  to  the  white  invasion.  The 
influx  of  whites  moreover  was  on  the  whole  so  sudden  and  overwhelming 
that  those  Indian  disturbances  which  did  occur  were  soon  forgotten. 
It  is  quite  possible  that  if  California  had  been  settled  one  family  at  a 
time  as  New  England  was,  "massacres"  and  "wars"  would  have  oc- 
curred that  would  have  rung  down  the  ages  like  the  wars  waged  by  the 
Indians  on  the  Colonies.  If  there  had  been  a  long  course  of  conflicts, 
our  California  tribes  might  have  developed  a  name  for  ferocity  like  that 
enjoyed  by  the  Mohawk,  or  the  Apache.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  white 
occupation  here  was  accomplished  by  violence  and  bloodshed,  and 
through  armed  conflict  with  the  natives  far  and  wide.  The  U.  S.  Army 
records  show  almost  as  many  movements  of  troops  against  the  Indians 
as  occurred  in  any  other  area  of  the  same  extent.  The  whole  period  of 
"  occupation  "  was  so  short,  however,  that  Indian  troubles  for  the  most 
part  were  soon  things  of  the  past. 


234  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  2I0NTHLY 

So  much  for  the  general  situation  in  California.  In  the  wild  and 
rugged  part  of  the  state,  Indian  resistance  lasted  for  a  long 
time.  One  such  area  was  west  of  the  Sacramento  in  the  Siskiyou 
region,  along  the  upper  waters  of  the  Trinity  and  Eel  rivers.  "Bad" 
Indians  used  to  frequent  the  wilds  in  this  part  of  the  state  long  after 
the  tribal  organizations  had  broken  down.  Such  Indians  caused  some 
little  trouble  to  enterprising  settlers  in  the  hills.  A  region  where  the 
Indian  opposition  was  still  more  spirited  and  where  Indian  disturbances 
dragged  out  still  longer  was  in  northeastern  California.  Here  the  Pitt 
Eiver  Indians,  and  later  the  Modocs,  put  up  a  number  of  very  spirited 
contests  before  knuckling  under.  The  whites,  on  the  whole,  were  very 
bitter  towards  "  wild  "  Indians,  even  when  harmless,  and  blamed  them 
for  everything,  from  the  occurrence  of  freshets  to  the  presence  of 
potato-bugs. 

It  must  of  course  be  recognized  that  the  occupation  of  California  by 
the  whites  was  inevitable.  The  Indians  had  to  be  dispossessed  to  make 
room  for  the  new  order.  The  white  occupation,  however,  was  not  only 
inevitable,  it  was  relentless.  The  methods  used  are  not  a  thing  of  which 
we  can  be  proud.  The  whites,  for  example,  introduced  into  California, 
where  it  was  unknown  prior  to  their  coming,  the  practise  of  scalping. 
It  was  ver}'  much  the  fashion  in  the  early  days  for  white  settlers  and 
miners  to  carry  on  Indian  wars  individually  and  informally.  The  line 
between  their  actions  and  plain  murder  is  rather  hard  to  draw.  Many 
of  the  white  loafers  and  irresponsibles  that  "bummed"  around  the 
frontier  settlements  used  to  preach  openly  a  doctrine  of  "exterminat- 
ing "  the  Indians.  A  very  considerable  proportion  of  our  "  Indian 
fighters"  in  this  state  deserved,  in  strict  justice,  to  be  hung.  It  may 
throw  some  light  in  general  on  the  nature  and  methods  of  these  "wars" 
to  state  that  there  existed  in  California,  long  after  the  close  of  the  civil 
war,  a  lively  traffic  in  Indian  slaves.  White  administration  of  Indian 
affairs  in  the  more  easterly  states  impresses  one  most  by  its  hopeless 
stupidity.  The  history  of  whites  and  Indians  in  California  impresses 
one  rather  with  a  sense  of  the  white  man's  ruthlessness. 

The  Yahi  Tribe 

In  the  northeastern  part  of  the  Sacramenio  valley  there  lived  a 
nation  of  Indians  who  were  early  driven  into  a  vigorous  hostility  to  the 
whites.  They  had  already,  from  their  friction  with  other  tribes,  de- 
veloped some  adeptness  in  raiding  and  thieving,  and  in  a  sort  of 
guerilla  warfare.  Their  northern  branch,  the  so-called  Nozi,  after  a 
time  capitulated,  and  became  hangers-on  of  civilization.  The  southern 
branch  of  the  stock,  calling  themselves  simply  Yahi,  or  "people,"  and 
inhabiting  a  stretch  of  country  immediately  east  of  the  Sacramento, 
kept  the  whites  in  a  state  of  uncertainty  for  a  considerably  longer  time. 


THE  LAST  WILD  TRIBE  OF  CALIFORNIA  235 

There  is  one  relatively  small  region  in  particular  which  came  to  be 
specially  identified  with  this  small  group  of  Indians.  That  is  the 
country  immediately  about  Mill  Creek,  East  of  the  Sacramento,  along 
the  waters  of  Antelope  Creek,  Mill  Creek,  Dry  Creek,  Deer  Creek  and 
Butte  Creek,  the  country  is  covered  with  a  cap  of  lava.  The  original 
source  of  this  lava  was,  I  believe,  the  mountain  which  has  recently  been 
attracting  so  much  attention  to  itself — Lassen  Butte.  The  elevation 
of  the  region  frequented  by  hostile  Indians  is  not  great  (it  all  lies  below 
the  level  of  the  pine  forest)  but  the  streams  have  cut  in  the  lava  a  large 
number  of  rough  canons  and  gullies.  Near  as  it  is  to  the  level  valley, 
the  country  is  extremely  rugged.  Cliffs,  crags,  and  sudden  promon- 
tories are  frequent,  and  there  are  great  numbers  of  caves.  While  the 
settlement  and  cultivation  of  the  valley  has  gone  forward  very  rapidly, 
this  region  in  the  foothills  has  remained  atmost  untouched.  To-day 
this  "lava'^  country  is  the  resort  of  animals  (and  to  a  certain  extent, 
of  plants)  which  are  becoming  extinct  elsewhere.  In  this  small  region 
in  north  central  California  the  Yahi  made  a  determined  stand  against 
civilization. 

In  the  course  of  their  life  in  these  caiions  they  developed  an  intense 
hatred  and  fear  of  the  whites.  They  came  to  be  hunted  very  much  like 
wild  animals.  Accordingly  they  developed  peculiar  habits  of  visiting 
the  valley  in  sudden  forays,  escaping  instantly  to  the  hills  afterwards. 
These  sudden  visitations,  often  resulting  in  the  loss  of  life  as  well  as 
property,  were  a  genuine  bugbear  to  homesteaders.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  Indians  were  on  their  part  often  harried  by  famine.  Pressure  from 
the  whites  prevented  them  from  making  full  use  of  the  natural  foods  the 
country  afforded.  Even  acorn-gathering  was  for  them  a  daiigerous  pur- 
suit, since  it  gave  opportunity  for  white  attack.  Their  natural  means  of 
subsistence  therefore  seem  to  have  been  almost  entirely  cut  off.  An  idea 
of  their  desperation  may  be  gathered  from  the  fact  that  on  at  least  one 
occasion  when  they  attacked  the  whites  and  were  chased,  their  plunder 
consisted  of  a  mule-load  of  vegetables.  In  other  words,  they  took  the 
field  and  risked  their  lives  for  the  sake  of  a  few  squashes  and  some  ears 
of  corn. 

It  has  always  been  supposed  that  remnants  of  several  tribes  made  up 
these  Mill  Creek  renegades.  From  what  we  have  recently  learned,  it 
seems  very  unlikely  that  there  was  more  than  one  tribe  involved.  In 
the  first  place,  the  only  member  of  this  hostile  group  who  has  ever  been 
questioned,  expresses  the  liveliest  dislike  of  all  other  tribes.  He  seems, 
and  always  has  seemed,  more  ready  to  make  friends  with  the  whites 
themselves,  than  with  the  neighboring  groups  of  Indians.  In  the  sec- 
ond place,  all  the  other  Indian  tribes  of  the  region  profess  the  liveliest 
horror  of  the  Yahi.  This  awe  extends  even  to  the  country  to-day  which 
the  Yahi  frequented.     Even  the  Yahi  and  the  Nozi,  though  they  spoke 


9 


236  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

dialects  of  one  language  (the  so-called  Yana)  express  the  most  unre- 
lenting hostility  for  each  other.  In  other  words,  the  Indians  who  lurked 
about  in  the  Mill  Creek  hills  for  several  decades  after  the  settlement  of 
the  valley,  were  probably  the  remnant  of  a  comparatively  pure  group, 
since  there  was  little  likelihood  of  intermixture. 

The  Mill  CreeJc  "War" 

Between  the  years  1850  and  1865  this  group  was  more  or  less  under 
observation  by  the  government.  Rumors  of  battle,  murder  and  sudden 
death  came  frequently  from  this  region  to  the  central  authorities  in  San 
Francisco  and  Sacramento.  On  one  or  two  occasions  attempts  were 
made  by  the  War  Department  to  apply  the  universal  remedy  for  Indian 
troubles — removal  to  a  reservation.  Details  concerning  the  movement 
of  troops  and  some  very  heated  correspondence  relative  to  this  tribe  may 
be  found  in  the  government  records  (War  Eecords,  Volume  50).  The 
names  of  some  very  distinguished  Californians  appear  in  this  connection. 
I  recall  especially  Governor  Stanford,  and  General  Albert  Sydney 
Johnston.  The  only  book  I  know  of  which  deals  exclusively  with  events 
in  the  Yahi  region  is  a  small  but  vivid  volume  written  by  E.  A.  Ander- 
son, an  actor  in  the  events,  and  sometime  sheriff  of  Butte  County 
("Fighting  the  Mill  Creeks,"  Chico,  Cal.,  1909).  This  little  work 
checks  up  with  the  records  of  the  War  Department.  The  "  war  "  with 
this  small  tribe  seems  to  be  quite  overlooked  in  the  histories  of  Cali- 
fornia'. There  is  no  mention  of  it  in  either  Bancroft  or  Hittell.  The 
reason  probably  is  that  it  was  very  much  like  what  had  happened,  or 
was  happening,  on  a  larger  scale  elsewhere.  The  War  Department  corre- 
spondence is  quite  full  for  the  period  covered. 

The  end  of  the  Mill  Creek  "war"  was  unusual  and  to  some  extent 
tragic.  A  party  of  armed  whites,  acting  without  other  authority  than 
resentment  and  an  inborn  savagery,  surprised  the  tribe  on  the  upper 
waters  of  Mill  Creek  in  1865.  Their  effort  a])parently  was  to  wipe  out 
this  Indian  group  on  the  spot.  On  the  admission  of  men  who  took 
part  in  the  action,  fire  was  opened  on  the  defenceless  Indians  in  the  early 
morning,  and  an  uncertain  number  of  them,  men,  women  and  children, 
shot  down.  A  few,  not  more  than  three  or  four,  perhaps,  escaped  into 
the  brusli  and  got  clear.  The  Mill  Creek  tribe  as  a  tribe  disappeared 
from  history  at  this  time.  With  one  or  two  possible  exceptions,  nothing 
was  seen  of  it  again  for  over  thirty-five  5'ears. 

Hidden  Life  of  the  Survivors 

The  survivors  who  escaped  these  executive  measures  of  1865  were 
too  few  in  number  to  resume  their  old  mode  of  life.  They  were,  on  the 
other  hand,  so  small  a  party  that  they  succeeded  in  hiding  away.  Little 
by  little  they  emerged  from  their  hiding  places  and  took  up  again  the 


THE  LAST  WILD  TRIBE  OF  CALIFORNIA 


237 


Map  of  Northern  California  showing   the   location    of   the   Yahi    and  Nozi  peoples.. 

procurmg  of  food  by  hunting  and  fishing.  They  did  not,  however, 
allow  themselves  to  be  seen.  They  undoubtedly  expected  annihilation 
to  follow  on  discovery,  and  probably  there  was  sound  judgment  behind 
this  belief.  The  almost  entire  absence  of  information  eoncernine:  them 
proves  that  they  took  to  the  wildest  places,  and  stayed  there.  All  that 
we  positively  know  about  them  is  that  they  disappeared  in  1865,  but 
were  still  alive  in  1908.  Under  the  circumstances,  they  must  have 
remained  "primitive."  Only  the  primitive  mode  of  life  was  open  to 
them.  They  were  primitive  when  they  went  into  retirement,  and  it 
was  their  salvation.  When  seen  again  in  1908  they  still  used  the  bow 
and  arrow  and  other  aboriginal  appliances,  and  were  absolutely  un- 
familiar with  the  usages  of  civilization.  Their  avoidance  of  observa- 
tion of  any  kind  left  them  as  isolated  as  if  they  had  been  literally  on 
another  continent. 

Our  information  concerning  them  during  this  period  is  very  scanty. 


Deer  Creek  Canon.     The  last  refuge  of  the  "  Yahi  "  tribe. 


238 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


The  existence  of  "  wild  "  Indians  in  this  part  of  the  world  was  known, 
or  at  least  believed  in,  in  many  quarters,  in  spite  of  definite  informa- 
tion.    Thus  Stephen  Powers  in  his  classical  "Tribes  of  California" 

(U.  S.  Department  of  the  Inter- 
ior, Contributions  to  Xorth  Amer- 
ican Ethnology,  Vol.  3)  says,  with- 
out giving  names,  that  five  of  this 
tribe,  two  men,  two  women,  and  a 
boy,  were  seen  in  1870.  This  group 
gave  from  time  to  time  further 
proof  of  their  existence  by  their 
habit  of  secretly  taking  food  from 
distant  and  lonely  mountain  cabins. 
It  is  a  settled  fact,  that  this  fugi- 
tive remnant  of  a  tribe  did  fairly 
well  with  their  primitive  mode  of 
life,  except  in  the  late  winter  and 
early  spring.  By  that  time  their 
stores  were  usually  exhausted  and 
the  salmon  had  not  yet  begun  to 
run  in  the  streams.  Their  fear  of 
the  whites  forbade  any  change  of 
home  or  habitation  in  search  of 
food.  The  only  course  possible, 
aside  from  quiet  starvation,  was  to 
seek  out  some  white  man's  cabin 
somewhere  in  the  hills,  help  them- 
selves to  food  as  quickly  as  possible, 
and  carry  it  back  to  their  lurking 
places.  This  they  seem  to  have 
done  on  several  occasions  almost 
every  year.  To  this  we  probably 
owe  the*  fact  that  the  group  man- 
aged to  remain  alive.  This  rob- 
bing of  cabins  could  not,  of  course, 
pass  unnoticed.  Such  cabins  as 
exist  in  these  hills  are  mere  tempo- 
rary shelters,  utilized  by  wandering 
hunters  and  stockmen.  Any  pass- 
er-by, according  to  the  custom  of  the 
countr}'',  is  at  liberty  to  invite  him- 
self into  a  cabin  if  he  happens  to 
find  one  that  is  in  use  at  all,  and 
is  supposed  to  give  himself  full  rights  and  privileges,  including  the 
use  of  all  solids  and  liquids.  This  is  a  sort  of  informal  hospitality 
which  prevails  universally.    The  Indians,  when  compelled  to  risk  dis- 


ISHi,  THE  Last  of  the  Yahi. 
From  a  photograph  taken  after  his  cap- 
ture at  OroviUe,  California  in  1911.  He 
is  wearing  a  "slaughter-house  apron." 
put  on  him  before  he  was  taken  to  town. 
His  hair  he  had  burned  off  with  a  fire- 
brand, as  a  sign  of  mourning,  throwing 
on  water  with  his  hands  to  keep  from 
burning  his  scalp.  The  remaining  photo- 
graphs in  this  article  were  taken  re- 
cently, after  his  appearance  was  much 
changed. 


THE  LAST  WILD  TRIBE  OF  CALIFORNIA 


239 


ISHi  AT  THE  Present  Time. 


covery  in  visiting  a  cabin,  took  as  much  food  as  they  possibly  could,  to 
lessen  the  chances  of  having  to  make  another  trip,  and  ran  away. 
They  usually  made  a  systematic  collection  of  everything  eatable,  down 
to  the  last  scrap,  and  carried  it  of!.  While  the  mountaineer  has  liberal 
notions  of  hospitality,  they  do  not  extend  to  this.  The  visits  of  the 
Indians  were  bitterly  resented.  They  left  their  unwilling  host  in  most 
eases,  on  his  return,  no  resource  but  to  walk  back  to  civilization,  empty 
within  and  without. 

Such  food-gathering  expeditions  were  conducted  with  true  Indian 
slyness.  In  spite  of  the  fact  that  such  "robberies"  were  fairly  fre- 
quent, and  extended  over  a  period  of  thirty  years,  the  Indians  \/ere 
never  seen.  Not  only  that,  but  no  one  ever  found  so  much  as  a  track 
or  footprint.  Often  the  only  trace  the  Indians  left  of  their  presence 
was  a  total  disappearance  of  everything  edible.  On  one  occasion  a  white 
mother  returned  to  her  homestead  from  berry-picking  with  two  small 
children,  to  find  nothing  in  her  larder  but  two  cold  boiled  potatoes.  On 
another  occasion,  two  mountaineers,  who  left  in  their  camp  two  months' 
provisions,  found  on  their  return  only  part  of  a  sack  of  barley.  On 
other  occasions  the  Indians  took  from  camps  even  the  barley  that  was 
intended  for  horse  feed.  Many  of  these  robberies  might  have  been 
blamed  to  white  men,  except  for  the  fact  that  stuff  was  taken  which 
a  white  man  would  not  bother  with;  for  example,  the  barley  just  men- 
tioned. ^^^lile  useless  to  a  white,  it  was  readily  usable  by  starving 
Indians  who  were  accustomed  to  making  food  out  of  acorns  and  grass 


240 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


Watching  for  Salmon. 


seeds,  and  had  at  hand  their  primitive  devices  for  milling  such  things. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  small  quantities  of  canned  stuff  found  in  the 
cabins  and  camps  were  never  touched.  The  Indians  seemed  to  have  a 
peculiar  fear  of  it,  perhaps  from  one  or  two  unfortunate  experiences, 
with  canned  goods  that  had  spoiled.  On  at  least  one  occasion  there  was 
taken  from  a  cabin  a  small  quantity  of  flour  conspicuously  labelled 
poisoned.  No  white  man  would  have  taken  chances  with  this  flour, 
however  hungry. 

More  than  once  on  such  expeditions  the  Indians  were  perilously 
near  exposure.  Once  an  excited  white  man,  with  a  repeating  rifle  and 
dogs,  trailed  them  so  closely  that  in  crossing  a  stream  they  dropped 
a  piece  of  headgear  in  their  hurry.  This  headdress,  fearfully  and 
wonderfully  wrought  out  of  scraps  of  a  dozen  different  fabrics,  is  now 
in  our  Museum.  At  the  time  of  this  escape  the  Indians  were  not  seen, 
though  where  they  had  forded  the  stream  the  rocks  were  still  wet. 

Mere  chance  on  several  occasions  nearly  resulted  in  discovery  for 
them.  A  hunter  one  time,  passing  along  in  the  winter,  noticed  a  low 
smoke  rising  out  of  a  snow-covered  thicket  across  a  stream  where  he 
knew  that  no  white  man  would  have  been.  Later  on,  after  the  final 
emergence  of  the  tribe  from  their  obscurity,  we  found  the  remains  of 
one  of  their  encampments  in  this  very  thicket. 

Such  is  the  only  actual  evidence  we  have  of  the  life  of  this  tribe  for 
over  a  generation.  The  most  important  change  within  that  period  is 
a  shift  in  their  habitat.  After  the  massacre  of  '65  they  lived  at  various 
places  up  and  down  the  stream  known  as  Mill  Creek,  robbing  cabins  when 
driven  by  famine.  After  1885  however  no  more  cabins  were  robbed 
along  this  stream.     The  Indians  were  evidently  driven  out  by  the  in- 


THE  LAST  WILD  TRIBE  OF  CALIFORNIA 


241 


creasing  degree  of  settlement.  The  next  stream  to  the  south  is  known 
as  Deer  Creek.  The  gorge  through  which  this  stream  passes  is  rugged 
and  wild  in  the  extreme.  It  is  in  fact  one  of  the  most  picturesque 
caiions  in  California.  The  wildest  part  of  the  caiion  of  Deer  Creek 
was  their  last  home. 

Below  the  mouth  of  a  side  branch  known  as  Sulphur  Creek,  the 
cliffs  which  hem  in  the'  main  stream  open  out  into  a  fairly  wide  valley. 
Between  the  base  of  the  cliffs  on  the  south  side  and  the  stream  itself, 
is  a  long  slope  composed  of  lava  detritus.  This  slope  consists  of  rocks 
piled  up  in  tremendous  confusion,  traversed  with  deep  gullies,  and 
overgrown  with  a  perfect  mat  of  scrub  oak.  The  brush  is  so  thick  that 
it  is  practically  impenetrable.  Even  sheep  and  cattle  avoid  the  place. 
I  doubt  if  such  animals  could  make  their  way  through  it.  Two  or 
three  miles  through  this  thicket  is  a  good  day's  work  for  a  man.  Here 
the  Yahi  tribe,  or  its  remnant,  found  a  final  refuge.  In  one  edge  of 
this  jungle,  on  a  shoulder  overlooking  the  stream,  under  some  pepper- 
woods  or  laurel,  they  built  some  tiny  lodges.  To  this  locality  and  little 
village  they  gave  the  name  of  Bear's  Hiding  Place.  The  mountains 
and  plateaus  hereabout  are  useless  for  cultivation.  The  lava  cliffs  con- 
tain no  metals.  The  country  is  quite  unfrequented  except  for  cattle- 
men and  cowboys,  who  come  at  certain  times  of  the  year  and  "round 
up  "  their  stock.  Since  the  live  stock  never  penetrated  the  jungle  where 
the  Indians  lived,  the  stockmen  also  avoided  it.  Here  for  over  twenty 
years  the  Indians  lurked  in  peace. 

They  do  not  seem  to  have  lived  here  exclusively.     As  far  as  we  can 


Making  a  Salmon-speak.     Two  foreshafts,  which  are  to  carry  toggles,  are  being  fas- 
tened  in   place   with   cord. 

VOL.  LXXXVI. — 17. 


2  42  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

gather  at  the  present  time,  they  ranged  in  the  summer  as  far  east  as 
Mount  Lassen.  On  the  upper  slopes  of  this  tremendous  peak  they 
found  plenty  of  game,  and  no  one  to  disturb  them.  When  it  grew  cold 
they  returned  to  the  foothills  and  passed  the  winter  at  Bear's  Hiding 
Place.  Near  the  lodges  there  is  to  be  found  a  circular  pit  some  three 
or  four  feet  deep.  This  pit  they  were  accustomed  to  pack  full  of  snow. 
The  melting  of  this  snow  gave  them  a  supply  of  water  and  saved  them 
the  trouble  and  risk  of  going  down  to  the  creek,  some  five  hundred 
feet  below. 

The  village  site  has  now  been  visited  by  a  number  of  people,  scien- 
tific and  otherwise.  I  think  they  will  all  agree  that  the  placing  of  the 
lodges  was  the  work  of  people  who  were  not  only  desperately  anxious 
to  hide  themselves,  but  who  knew  thoroughlv  well  how  to  do  it.  The 
houses  were  built  where  they  were  invisible  from  the  cliffs  on  either 
side.  The  Indians  passed  down  to  the  creek,  which  was  very  important 
to  them  on  account  of  the  fish  in  it,  under  the  shelter  of  a  growth  of 
laurel.  Thus  they  could  move  about  and  still  remain  hidden.  More- 
over, they  avoided  making  visible  trails,  especially  near  the  water.  The 
little  path  that  leads  down  from  the  lodges  under  and  through  the 
thicket,  ramifies  and  disappears  as  it  approaches  the  stream.  In  other 
words,  they  went  down  by  different  ways,  to  avoid  making  one  conspicu- 
ous pathway.  In  making  the  needful  paths  through  the  brush,  they 
bent  aside  the  necessary  twigs.  Cutting  or  breaking  them  would  have 
made  the  path  much  more  conspicuous.  I  doubt  if  an  observer  on  the 
cliff  would  ever  have  seen  the  Indians  if  he  had  been  looking  directly 
down  upon  them.  Altogether,  the  place  and  its  selection  showed  con- 
siderable evidence  of  craft,  and  to  the  wandering  hunter  or  rider  on  the 
mountains  round  about,  the  locality  would  have  looked  always  like  a 
genuine  bear's  hiding  place,  for  all  the  evndence  of  human  habitation 
to  be  seen. 

The  Breaking  Up  of  the  Hidden  Village 

Such  was  the  life  of  this  group  until  the  year  1908.  At  that  time  a 
party  of  surveyors,  on  engineering  business,  happened  by  mere  luck  to 
encounter  them.  One  evening  a  naked  savage  was  suddenly  observed, 
standing  on  a  rock  by  the  stream  side,  armed  with  a  long  spear.  This 
resulted,  from  all  accounts,  in  the  equal  alarm  of  all  parties.  The  next 
morning,  those  members  of  the  party  who  had  not  run  all  the  way  to 
camp,  went  down  to  the  place,  cast  about  in  the  brush,  and  finally  came 
upon  the  Indian  lodges.  Two  Indians,  running  for  their  lives,  were 
actually  seen — one  of  them  an  old  man,  helped  along  by  a  middle-aged 
woman.  This  fleeting  glimpse  is  all  that  we  know  of  these  individuals. 
They  have  never  been  seen  again.  Their  actual  fate  is  still  unknown. 
In  camp  was  found,  under  some  blankets,  a  partially  paralyzed  old 
woman,  frightened  nearly  to  death,  unable  to  move.  The  whites  did 
what  they  could  for  this  old  person,  then  helped  themselves,  mainly  in 


THE  LAST  WILD  TRIBE  OF  CALIFORNIA  243 

a  spirit  of  curiosity,  to  the  contents  of  the  camp — bows,  arrows,  skin 
blankets — and  after  prying  about,  went  back  to  camp  for  dinner.  When 
they  returned  next  day  the  old  woman  was  gone. 

Such  was  the  tragic  end  of  the  last  remnant  of  the  Yahi  tribe. 
Except  for  one  individual,  our  account  closes  here.  The  members  of 
the  tribe  who  were  seen  at  this  time  seem  to  have  perished  from  cold, 
hunger,  and  exposure,  without  ever  returning  to  their  camp. 

Nearly  three  years  later,  in  August,  1911,  at  a  slaughter-house  four 
miles  from  Oroville,  eighty  miles  away,  one  morning  there  suddenly 
appeared  from  nowhere  a  naked  Indian.  His  only  garment  was  an  old 
castoff  undershirt.  He  was  thin,  hungry,  greatly  worn,  and  of  most 
unusual  appearance.  The  people  in  charge  of  the  premises  telephoned 
to  the  sheriff  and  reported  with  some  excitement  the  presence  of  a  "  wild 
man."  No  one,  Indian  or  white,  could  make  him  understand  a  word. 
The  sheriff  of  Butte  County  came  out,  took  the  wild  man  in  charge  and 
gave  him,  as  the  most  available  lodging,  the  insane  cell  of  the  jail. 
When  the  news  reached  the  university,  the  appearance  of  this  strange 
Indian  was  at  once  connected  with  the  Yahi  tribe  of  Deer  Creek,  in 
which  the  department  of  anthropology  had  long  been  interested.  It 
fell  to  the  lot  of  the  present  writer  to  journey  to  Oroville  to  identify 
him.  Our  only  resource  was  to  "  try  him  out  "  with  a  vocabulary  in  the 
Nozi  dialect,  since  there  was  no  material  in  existence  in  what  was 
thought  to  be  his  own  proper  language.  The  first  impression  received 
of  the  wild  Indian  was  the  sight  of  him,  draped  in  a  canvas  apron  they 
had  hurriedly  put  on  him  at  the  slaughter-house,  sitting  on  the  edge  of 
a  cot  in  his  cell,  still  uncertain  of  his  fate,  and  answering  uUsi  ("  [I 
don't]  understand  ")  to  all  the  questions  that  were  being  fired  at  him  in 
English,  Spanish,  and  half  a  dozen  Indian  languages,  by  visitors.  The 
present  writer's  amateur  attempts  at  Yana  were  equally  unintelligible  to 
him  for  a  long  time.  An  agreement  was  finally  reached,  however,  on  the 
word  for  the  material  of  which  his  cot  was  made,  si' win' i,  or  yellow 
pine.  His  face  lightened  up  at  this  word,  though  he  evidently  could 
hardly  trust  his  senses.  These  were  probably  the  first  intelligible 
sounds  he  had  heard  from  a  human  being  in  three  years. 

Since  those  days  he  has  become  a  regular  member  of  the  Museum 
staff.  He  has  revisited  Deer  Creek  caiion  in  our  company,  and  there  is 
not  a  foot  of  the  country  he  does  not  know.  There  is  not  the  slightest 
doubt  that  it  has  been  his  home.  He  led  the  party  to  the  old  lodges  in ' 
the  jungle  at  Bear's  Hiding  Place,  he  communicated  scores  of  place- 
names  up  and  down  the  stream  for  miles,  and  even  led  the  way  over  to 
his  old  lurking  places  on  Mill  Creek,  some  distance  to  the  north.  In 
other  words,  he  has  told  us  all  he  could,  in  a  general  way,  about  the  tribe. 
He  has,  however,  been  curiously  backward  in  telling  the  intimate  history 
of  his  own  immediate  group.  He  has  gone  so  far  as  to  say  that  the  middle- 
aged  woman  who  was  seen  was  his  sister,  that  the  very  old  woman  was 


244  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

his  mother,  that  the  old  man,  however,  was  not  his  father.  In  general 
he  speaks  of  them  with  reluctance.  His  reasons  for  this  are  not  at  all 
mysterious.  These  people  are  dead,  and  to  the  Indian  that  is  ample 
cause  for  avoiding  all  mention  of  them.  In  the  first  place,  if,  in  the 
world  of  spirits,  they  hear  their  names  being  mentioned,  they  may  take 
it  (horror  of  horrors  !)  for  a  summons.  Hence  to  taboo  their  names  or 
any  conversation  about  them  is  mere  commonplace  caution.  Moreover, 
to  speak  of  them  and  their  life  makes  the  survivor  sad.  At  worst,  to 
mention  the  dead  is  dreadful;  at  best,  it  is  a  serious  disrespect.  For  all 
of  these  reasons  our  surviving  tribesman  avoids  talking  of  his  own  per- 
sonal history.  It  is  all  mixed  up  with  that  of  these  other,  deceased 
persons.  It  is  impossible  to  discuss  recent  events  without  bringing  in 
their  names,  so  he  usually  prefers  to  talk  of  other  things.  He  is  always 
ready  to  talk  at  length  about  the  general  mode  of  life  of  his  people — 
anything  in  fact  that  does  not  have  personal  details  in  it.  He  is  anxious 
and  enthusiastic  in  explaining  his  religious  and  mythical  ideas.  As  a 
general  thing,  the  more  ancient  the  lore,  the  more  volubly  he  discourses. 
We  expect  some  day  to  insinuate  ourselves  behind  his  reserve,  and  learn 
the  real  history  of  his  movements  during  the  last  three  or  four  years 
before  his  "capture."  His  particular  secretiveness  in  certain  matters 
may  be  illustrated  by  the  fact  that  he  has  never  told  us  his  own  name. 
We  address  him  usually  in  his  own  tongue  as  "Ishi,"  which  means 
simply  "man."  His  actual  personal  name  is  still  unknown,  and  pos- 
sibly always  will  be. 

Two  pictures  are  reproduced  which  were  taken  on  the  visit  that  he 
made  in  our  company  to  his  old  haunts  on  Deer  Creek.  He  was  in 
familiar  surroundings,  thoroughly  at  home,  told  us  details  concerning 
the  mode  of  life  and  enlarged  in  many  directions  on  hunting  and  other 
tribal  pursuits.  Thus  he  named  for  us  several  hundred  species  of 
plants,  and  described  in  detail  the  uses  to  which  his  people  put  them. 
He  is  a  very  remarkable  man,  aside  from  his  extraordinary  personal 
history,  and  after  all  his  hard  life,  very  communicative  and  lovable. 
He  is  quite  possibly,  of  all  the  Indians  of  JSTorth  America  to-day,  the 
one  who  has  most  nearly  the  primitive  viewpoint.  Hjs  impressions  of 
our  civilization  when  we  finally  understand  them  will  probably  bring 
out  many  curious  and  interesting  points.  He  will  be  able,  moreover, 
to  give  us,  from  the  primitive  standpoint,  information  about  a  little- 
known  chapter  of  history. 

From  time  to  time  reports  come  in  of  evidence  pointing  to  Indians 
who  are  still  hiding  away  in  the  mountains  east  of  the  Sacramento.  It 
is  very  hard  in  many  cases  to  say  just  what  the  basis  of  these  reports  is. 
It  is  not  absolutely  impossible  that  there  are  one  or  more  members  of 
the  Yahi  group  still  wandering  about  in  the  wilderness.  Let  us  hope 
that  if  there  are  any  others  of  this  group  still  alive  we  may  ultimately 
succeed  in  bringing  all  of  them  together. 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       245 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESEET,  THEIE  SIG- 
NIFICANCE IN  A  STUDY  OF  THE  OEIGIN  AND 
EVOLUTION  OF  LIFE  IN  AMEEICA 

Br  Professor  JOHN  C.   MERRIAM 

Introduction 

"FT  is  almost  a  rule  that  features  of  the  natural  world  which  have 
-*-  exerted  an  unusual  influence  in  developing  our  emotional,  poetic 
and  religious  natures,  when  brought  within  the  range  of  scientific  inquiry 
seem  only  more  deeply  to  excite  our  wonder  and  respect.  Thus,  it  has 
happened  that  the  deserts  of  the  world,  having  furnished  the  stimulus 
for  some  of  our  earliest  poetic  and  religious  literature,  appear  to  the 
scientist  of  to-day  as  places  in  which  nature  meets  us  with  unusual 
frankness,  and  where  her  wonders  almost  clamor  to  be  understood. 

In  those  fields  of  history  covering  the  development  or  evolution  of 
the  external  form  of  the  earth  and  of  the  life  upon  it,  deserts  have  been 
very  significant  sources  of  information,  and  the  so-called  bad-land 
formations  in  the  arid  or  semi-arid  regions  of  western  North  America 
have  been  recognized  as  playing  a  very  important  part.  As  the  wide- 
spread exposures  of  these  formations  have  elsewhere  in  America  proved 
veritable  museums  of  wonderfully  preserved  remains,  it  has  seemed 
worthy  of  remark  that  the  extensive  bad-lands  in  the  Great  Basin  region 
of  America  have  with  few  exceptions  furnished  almost  nothing  bearing 
on  the  history  of  life.  The  early  geologic  explorers  in  Nevada  and 
California  found  little  bearing  on  the  paleontologic  story  of  the  area 
they  examined.  Later  investigators  in  the  bad-lands  of  these  regions 
have  generally  failed  to  report  determinable  vertebrate  remains,  and  the 
life  record  has  until  recently  remained  practically  a  closed  book.  It  has 
been  with  much  interest,  therefore,  that  those  concerned  with  the  history 
of  western  North  America,  and  with  its  bearing  on  the  whole  story  of 
life  growth  or  evolution,  liave  seen  coming  to  light  with  the  past  decade 
chapter  after  chapter  of  this  missing  record. 

With  the  exception  of  the  John  Day  region  of  eastern  Oregon,  which 
supplies  an  important  geologic  and  paleontologic  record,  the  largest  part 
of  our  knowledge  of  the  history  of  mammalian  life  west  of  the  Wasatch 
is  obtained  in  the  heretofore  unexplored  deposits  of  the  Mohave  Desert. 
At  the  present  time  there  are  available  from  the  Mohave  at  least  three 
extinct  mammalian  faunas  previously  unlmown,  or  only  imperfectly 
known,  in  the  Great  Basin.  The  life  record  given  us  by  these  faunas, 
the  evolutionary  series  to  which  they  contribute,  and  the  suggestions 


246  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

which  they  offer  concerning  tlie  origin,  evolution  and  world  relation- 
ships of  life  in  America,  furnish  very  significant  chapters  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  western  side  of  the  continent. 

Nearly  twenty  years  ago  several  very  fragmentary  specimens  from 
the  Mohave  were  forwarded  to  the  writer  by  Dr.  Stephen  Bowers,  the 
material  having  been  obtained  in  part  by  John  T,  Reed.  The  earliest 
material  from  definitely  known  localities  coming  to  the  writer  was 
received  in  the  spring  of  1911  from  John  E.  Suman,  then  a  student  at 
the  University  of  California.  The  collection  consisted  of  a  small 
quantity  of  loose  bones  and  teeth  obtained  on  the  desert  by  H.  S. 
Mourning.  These  specimens  furnished  the  basis  for  the  first  study  of 
the  Upper  Miocene  fauna  of  the  Mohave.  In  the  following  year  C.  L. 
Baker,  a  fellow  in  paleontology  at  the  University  of  California,  visited 
the  localities  reported  by  Mr.  Mourning  and  secured  a  fine  collection 
of  mammal  material  from  the  Miocene  near  Barstow,  and  a  small 
amount  of  material  from  the  Pliocene  at  Eicardo.  Other  important 
collections  were  made  later  by  Mr.  Baker,  Mr.  Mourning,  Mr.  J.  P. 
Buwalda  and  by  many  students  in  paleontology  from  the  University 
of  California.  Following  his  work  on  the  Mohave  in  1913,  Mr.  Buwalda 
independently  visited  a  locality  in  the  eastern  portion  of  this  region, 
and  obtained  a  most  interesting  collection  of  Pleistocene  remains  in  a 
formation  to  which  he  has  given  the  name  Manix  beds.  This  material 
gave  us  for  the  first  time  a  representative  group  of  vertebrates  from  the 
Pleistocene  of  the  Great  Basin. 

The  collections  brought  together  at  various  times  have  opened  to  us 
a  view  of  the  mammalian  life  of  the  Mohave  Desert  in  three  periods: 
the  Barstow  fauna  of  Upper  Miocene  age,  the  Eicardo  fauna  of  early 
Pliocene  stage  and  the  Manix  faima  from  the  Pleistocene. 

The  Mohave  Desert  of  To-Day 

The  Mohave  Desert  area  of  California  has  been  generally  recognized 
as  one  of  the  least  attractive  portions  of  the  southwest.  It  has  been 
described  as  a  forbidding  land  of  heat  and  thirst.  The  deception  of  its 
mirages  is  a  current  example  of  the  lure  of  unreality,  and  its  great 
stretches  of  san'd  and  dust  have  appeared  to  function  mainly  as  barriers 
to  human  progress.  The  history  of  exploration  has  seemed  amply  to 
justify  current  views  concerning  the  desert,  as  year  after  3'ear  pros- 
pectors or  explorers,  deceived  by  distances  or  miscalculating  the  posi- 
tion of  scattered  water  sources,  have  paid  with  their  lives  the  penalty 
for  inaccurate  judgment. 

In  spite  of  seeming  obstacles  offered  to  one  who  would  make  its 
acquaintance,  those  who  have  come  to  know  the  Mohave  seem  always  to 
cultivate  the  friendship.     The  prospector  has  cheerfully  risked  his  life, 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       247 


Odtline  Map  Showing  Relation  of  the  Mohave  Area  to  Other  Pacific  Coast 
AND  Great  Basin  Regions  During  the  Later  Geological  Periods.  Within  the 
Mohave  region  the  principal  fauna!  localities  are  indicated  as  follows  :  B.  Barstow 
fauna ;  R,  Ricardo  fauna ;  M,  Manix  fauna. 


248 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


IT 


f 


4 


Characteristic  View  of  the  Mohave  Desert  in  the  Vicinity  of  the  Fossil  Beds. 

(Photograph  by  C.  L.  Baker.) 


not  alone  for  the  desire  of  gain,  but  because  the  fascination  of  the  desert 
always  increases.  The  traveler  is  inevitably  deeply  influenced  by  the 
uncertain  magnitude  of  distance,  by  the  silence,  and  the  unusual  forms 
and  brilliance  of  the  landscape  by  day  and  night.  Once  an  acquaint- 
ance is  formed,  distrust  and  fear  are  replaced  by  reverence  of  the  quiet 
strength  of  nature  exhibited  here  in  factors  which  are  too  large  or  too 
elusive  to  be  fully  comprehended. 

The  Mohave  lies  in  the  middle  of  the  southern  half  of  the  state  of 
California,  the  desert  proper  being  situated  in  the  angle  where  the 
Sierras  turn  west  to  meet  the  Coast  Eanges.     The  western  limits  of  the 


Characteristic  View  of  tite  JIoiiave  Deseut  ;  ^howiug  ai  lias  locality  an  uuusuul 

abundance    of   vegetation,    consisting    of   creosote   bushes    and    Joshua 

trees.     (Photograph  by   C.   L.   Baker.) 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       249 

area  are  sharply  marked  by  the  abriijjtly  rising  wall  of  the  bordering 
mountain  ranges.  The  limits  to  the  east  are  not  so  clearly  marked, 
being  considered  by  some  to  reach  the  eastern  border  of  the  state;  by 
others  they  are  held  to  extend  less  than  half  the  distance  to  the  Colorado 
Eiver. 

The  elevation  of  the  desert  floor  ranges  from  2,000  ft.  approximately 
to  4,000  ft.  above  the  sea,  in  sharp  contrast  to  the  basin  of  the  Salton 
Sea,  which  extends  below  the  level  of  the  ocean  a  short  distance  to  the 
south.  The  topography  of  the  region  is  characterized  by  great  stretches 
of  open  plains  many  miles  in  extent,  over  which  scattered  mountain 
peaks  or  ranges  are  distributed  with  little  suggestion  of  order  in  their 
arrangement. 

The  total  rainfall  of  the  desert  amounts  only  to  a  few  inches  per 
year.  Living  streams  are  rare,  and  travel  in  all  of  this  region  is  neces- 
sarily limited  by  accessibility  of  the  few  localities  at  which  potable 
water  can  be  obtained.  Eain  falls  largely  in  the  middle  of  the  winter 
season,  and  throughout  the  greater  part  of  the  year  there  is  no  precipi- 
tation. The  water  at  times  comes  with  a  rush,  flows  off  rapidly  as 
floods,  and  sometimes  causes  considerable  damage  to  artificial  obstacles 
in  the  path  of  the  current.  With  the  exception  of  the  Mohave  Eiver, 
which  runs  a  thin  superficial  stream  for  a  considerable  portion  of  the 
year,  there  are  very  few  points  at  which  a  supply  of  water  can  be  ob- 
tained on  the  surface.  Investigation  has  shown  that  artesian  water  is 
available  over  certain  areas,  and  agriculturists  have  operated  to  some 
extent  by  irrigation  with  water  obtained  from  wells. 

The  diminished  rainfall,  the  unhindered  influence  of  a  brilliant  sun 
and  the  moderate  altitude  have  given  to  the  Mohave  a  distinctly  arid 
climate;  and  with  the  climate  go  all  of  the  accompanying  character- 
istics of  life,  of  erosion  and  deposition,  and  of  the  peculiar  land  forms 
of  an  arid  country. 

The  vegetation  of  the  Mohave  area  is  at  the  present  time  limited 
mainly  to  desert  types,  the  contrast  with  the  flora  beyond  the  ridge 
immediately  to  the  west  being  very  marked.  In  crossing  the  Tehachapi 
Eange  from  the  Great  Valley  of  California  to  the  Mohave  one  finds  the 
valleys  of  the  western  side  thickly  studded  with  oak,  sycamore,  and 
willow,  and  the  hills  are  carpeted  with  grass.  On  the  eastern  slope  the 
vrhole  aspect  of  the  vegetation  changes  suddenly,  as  if  one  were  entering 
a  foreign  land.  The  yuccas  and  the  creosote  bush  replace  oak  and 
grass,  and  the  oddly  outstretched  arms  of  the  Joshua  trees  seem  every- 
where raised  up  as  if  to  attract  attention.  Plants  of  arboreal  type  are 
rare,  and,  excepting  a  few  junipers,  the  yuccas  furnish  the  only  trees. 
Creosote  bushes  are  generally  present,  but  are  sometimes  sparingly  rep- 
resented. Perhaps  to  show  that  under  adverse  conditions  nature  means 
only  to  be  just  and  not  unkind,  the  spring  and  early  summer  find  the 


250 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


Typical  Exposcke  of  the  Fossil-bearixg  Barstow  Miocene  Formation  North  of 
Barstow.      (Photograph  by  C.  L.  Baker.) 


desert  dotted  here  and  there  with  patches  of  flowers  of  unusual  beauty 
and  fragrance,  offering  their  charms  as  an  antidote  for  the  misery  of 
thirst  about  them. 

The  living  mammalian  fauna  of  the  Mohave  comprises  thirty-five 
species,  of  which  twenty-one  are  rodents.  The  TJngulata  are  repre- 
sented only  by  the  pronghorn  antelope  and  the  desert  big-horn.  The 
Carnivora  include  the  desert  coyote,  the  Mohave  Desert  kit  fox,  the 
California  raccoon,  a  spotted  skunk,  a  striped  skunk,  the  northwest 
cougar,  and  the  desert  wildcat.  The  rodent  fauna  includes  thirteen 
genera.  The  species  are  mainly  characteristic  desert  forms.  Of  the 
living  mammals  only  a  few  genera  are  known  also  in  the  older  faunas  of 


Folded  and  Faulted  Strata  Kepresenting  a  Portion  of  the  Section  Containing 
Fossil  Remains  North  of  Bakstow.     (Photograph  by  C.  L.  Baker.) 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       251 

the  Mohave.  Some  of  the  existing  types,  as  the  bighorn,  are  immi- 
grants from  the  Old  World,  and  arrived  very  late  in  the  history  of  this 
region.     Others,  as  the  pronghorn,  are  evidently  of  American  origin. 

Geologic  Occuriience  and  Age  of  the  Mohave  Fossil  Beds 

The  Miocene  and  Pliocene  faunas  in  the  Mohave  area  occur  in  an 
accumulation  of  strata  amounting  to  not  less  than  7,000  to  8,000  ft.  in 
thickness.  The  beds  consist  in  large  part  of  volcanic  materials  which 
are  interstratified  with  clay  strata,  shales,  and  desert  conglomerates. 
The  origin  of  the  immense  quantities  of  ashes  piled  up  in  these  forma- 
tions is  as  yet  unknown.  They  were  probably  derived  from  volcanoes 
and  other  channels  for  extrusion  of  lavas  and  ash  in  or  near  the 
Mohave  area.  In  a  few  strata  abundant  remains  of  fresh-water  mol- 
lusks  indicate  deposition  of  these  beds  in  fresh- water  ponds  or  lakes. 
At  other  levels  the  skeletons  of  large  desert  tortoises  and  numerous 
remains  of  land  mammals  now  characteristic  of  flat  open  country  sug- 
gest accumulation  upon  dry  land. 

Mr,  Baker  considered  that  the  Miocene  and  Pliocene  deposits  of  the 
Mohave  were  formed  mainly  under  physical  conditions  similar  to  those 
operating  in  the  desert  at  the  present  time.  As  nearly  as  the  writer 
can  judge,  the  climate  conditions  in  the  Mohave  area  through  the 
period  in  which  the  mammal  beds  were  being  laid  down,  were  those  of 
a  semi-arid  region  somewhat  more  humid  than  the  Mohave  of  to-day, 
and  the  climate  corresponded  approximately  to  that  now  obtaining  in 
the  southern  end  of  the  Great  Valley  of  California. 

Sections  of  the  older  formations  containing  fossils  in  the  Mohave 
area  are  most  satisfactorily  shown  in  great  thicknesses  of  strata  exposed 
in  the  hills  north  of  the  town  of  Barstow,  and  in  excellent  exposures  at 
Eicardo  between  the  eastern  foot  of  the  Sierras  and  the  El  Paso  Eansre. 
At  both  localities  exposures  extending  for  many  miles  give  unusual 
opportunity  to  examine  the  structure  of  the  formations,  and  bring  to 
view  the  strata  containing  mammalian  remains.  As  shown  in  the 
accompanying  photographs,  the  formations  at  these  localities  are  sculp- 
tured by  erosion  into  most  fantastic  shapes,  like  those  of  the  famous 
bad-land  forms  of  the  western  Great  Plains  region.  In  the  intricate 
gullies  and  caverns  of  these  exposures  there  is  found  a  most  fascinating 
field,  in  which  to  hunt  for  the  big  game  of  the  Mohave  of  ancient  times. 

The  oldest  fossil-bearing  beds  of  the  Mohave  area  rest  upon  a 
basement  consisting  in  part  of  granite  and  metamorphosed  or  altered 
rocks  of  pre-Tertiary  age.  They  may  also  rest  upon  extruded  igneous 
rocks,  presumably  at  least  as  old  as  Lower  Miocene. 

The  oldest  known  strata  containing  vertebrate  fossils  in  the  Mohave 
area  are  found  in  the  Upper  Miocene  near  Barstow.  Leaves  stated  to 
be  of  Eocene  age  were  collected  by  H.  W.  Fairbanks  at  Black  Mountain 


252 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


m^^ 


Typical,  Exposure  of  the  Ricaedo  Pliocene  near  Ricaedo.     (Photograph  by  C.  L. 

Baker.) 

in  the  El  Paso  Eange  on  the  western  border  of  the  desert,  but  no  addi- 
tional material  representing  this  stage  has  as  yet  been  found. 

To  the  whole  series  of  older  or  Tertiary  sediments  of  the  Mohave 
area,  0.  H.  Hershey  has  given  the  name  Eosamond  series.  Mr. 
Baker  has  shown  that  the  series  is  divisible  into  a  number  of  quite  dis- 
tinct divisions.  Some  of  these  may  represent  quite  widely  separated 
periods.  Evidence  which  the  writer  obtains  from  a  study  of  the  faunas 
indicates  that  the  deposits  north  of  Barstow  containing  a  Miocene 
fauna,  may  represent  a  formation  quite  distinct  from  that  at  Eicardo 
containing  a  Pliocene  fauna.  The  term  Barstow  formation  is  used 
for  the  beds  containing  the  Upper  Miocene  fauna.     The  lower  portion 


Exposures  or  Ricaruo  Pliocene,  Showing  Characteristic  Bad-land  Structure  in 
Outcrops  kear  Ricardo.     (Photograph  by  C.  L.  Baker.) 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       253 

of  the  Barstow  section  may  be  considerably  older  than  Upper  Miocene 
and  may  constitute  a  distinct  formation.  The  name  Eicardo  formation 
is  used  for  the  strata  with  a  Pliocene  fauna  at  Eicardo. 

The  youngest  fossil  beds  of  the  Mohave  region  appear  in  a  small 
basin  about  20  to  40  miles  east  of  Barstow.  The  deposits  cover  an 
area  about  25  miles  in  length  and  represent  accumulation  in  a  small 
body  of  fresh-water,  to  which  Mr.  Buwalda  has  given  the  name  Manix 
Lake.  The  deposits  consist  of  clays  and  sands  aggregating  about  75 
feet  in  thickness.  Their  accumulation  was  initiated  by  the"  raising  of 
a  barrier  across  the  Mohave  Eiver  drainage,  causing  the  ponding  of  the 
river  which  formed  Manix  Lake.  The  lake  disappeared  and  deposition 
ceased  when  the  river  cut  through  the  barrier  across  its  path. 

Eemains  of  extinct  vertebrates  are  found  over  a  wide  area  in  the 
deposits  of  the  Mohave  region.  They  are  not  abundant  in  many  places, 
and  one  may  search  long  for  even  a  fragment  of  a  bone  or  tooth.  In  a 
few  localities  fragmentary  specimens  were  found  scattered  over  the 
ground  in  considerable  numbers,  but  connected  parts  of  skeletons  are 
rare.  At  several  points  where  bones  were  found  well  exposed,  and  in 
their  original  position  in  the  rock,  they  seemed  to  be  scattered  and  dis- 
connected, showing  that  the  parts  of  skeletons  were  generally  widely 
separated  and  broken  or  weathered  before  final  burial.  The  process  of 
entombment  was  probably  similar  to  that  in  operation  on  the  desert  at 
the  present  time,  where  bones  of  horses  and  cattle  are  pulled  apart  by  i^ 

coyotes,  scattered  by  rain-wash,  and  in  a  large  measure  rotted  away 
before  any  portion  of  the  animal  is  permanently  covered  over. 

The  collections  obtained  include  several  thousand  specimens,  mostly 
teeth  and  portions  of  limb-bones.  In  a  few  cases,  good  jaws  and  parts 
of  skulls  were  secured,  but  unlike  the  occurrence  in  many  of  the  forma- 
tions in  the  west,  these  beds  seem  almost  never  to  contain  complete 
skeletons. 

In  the  Miocene  beds  of  Barstow  vertebrate  remains  are  fovmd  almost 
exclusively  in  the  uppermost  zone.  In  the  Eicardo  Pliocene  fossil  re- 
mains were  found  in  several  parts  of  the  section,  but  the  best  represen- 
tation of  the  fauna  appears  near  the  middle  and  toward  the  top  of  the 
formation. . 

Although  only  a  few  localities  have  been  found  at  which  even  small 
collections  of  mammalian  bones  can  be  obtained  in  the  area  of  the 
Mohave  region  examined,  it  is  evident  that  deposits  representing  the 
formations  in  which  bones  occur  are  very  widely  spread  over  this  area, 
and  future  exploration  may  be  expected  to  add  greatly  to  the  informa- 
tion now  available. 

The  formations  containing  mammalian  faunas  in  the  Mohave  area, 
and  their  approximate  relations  to  the  recognized  geological  scale  are 
as  follows : 


254 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


A  Basin   in  the  Ricardo  Pliocene  near  Ricardo.      (Photograph  by  C.  L.  Baker.) 


Geological  Periods 

M:iTum:il  Reds  of  the 
Mohave  Area 

Recognized  Formations  of  other  Western 
Areas 

Pleistocene 

Manix  Beds 

Rancho  La  Brea,  California 

Upper 

Pliocene 

Middle 

Lower 

Eicardo  Beds 

Thousand  Creek,  Nevada 
Rattlesnake,  Oregon 

Upper 

Barstow  Beds 

Cedar  Mountain,  Nevada 

Miocene 

Middle 

Mascall,  Ore.  and  Virginia  Valley,  Nev. 

Lower 

Columbia  Lava  of  Oregon 

(&■ 


liiCAuDo  i'LiucENE  AT  RiCARDO.     This  IS  ouB  of  the  most  important  fossil  'ocalities  in 
the  Ricardo  formation.      (Photograph   by  C.   L.  Baiter.) 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       255 

The  Oldest  Known  Mammal  Fauna  of  the  Mohave,  the  Upper 

Miocene  of  Barstow 

The  fauna  of  the  oldest  mammal-bearing  beds  of  the  Mohave  area 
includes  about  thirty  species,  many  of  which  are  known  only  by  frag- 
mentary material.  The  larger  part  of  the  collection  consists  of  the 
remains  of  horses  and  camels.  The  bones  of  horses,  accompanied  by 
those  of  other  animals,  are  sufficiently  abundant  at  one  horizon  to  mark 
a  zone  or  layer  which  can  be  traced  for  a  number  of  miles,  and  is  known 
as  the  Merychippus  zone,  from  the  most  common  fossil,  a  little  three- 
toed  horse  of  the  genus  M  cry  chip  fus. 

Of  the  horse  there  are  at  least  four  species  represented.  Merychip- 
pus is  the  most  abundant  form  and  includes  two  or  three  types.  They 
were  mainly  animals  about  as  large  as  small  colts  of  the  modern  horse. 
They  possessed  one  large  middle  toe  and  two  small,  scarcely-functional 
side  toes  on  each  foot.  Their  heads  were  long  and  had  peculiar  de- 
pressions on  the  sides  of  the  face.  The  back-teeth  were  long,  and  as 
they  were  worn  off  from  the  top,  they  grew  up  from  the  root,  as  in  the 
modern  horse.  These  animals  were  of  a  distinctly  open  c-ountry  or 
plains  type,  and  evidently  supported  themselves  by  grazing  or  grass- 
feeding,  rather  than  by  browsing  from  brush  as  do  the  deer.  One  of 
the  larger  species  of  Merychippus  is  almost  indistinguishable  from  the 
genus  Protohippus,  the  next  or  later  stage  in  the  evolutionary  series  of 
the  horse.  An  exceedingly  rare  form  related  to  Merychippus  is  repre- 
sented by  a  few  large  teeth  which  may  possibly  belong  to  a  representa- 
tive of  the  genus  Pliohippus,  a  larger  animal  somewhat  like  the  modern 
horse.  One  of  the  most  common  Merychippus  species  is  a  small  form 
approaching  in  its  characters  the  genus  Hipparion,  the  characteristic 
horse  of  the  following  Eicardo  or  early  Pliocene  epoch.  The  Eicardo 
Hipparions  are  possibly  descendants  of  this  small  Barstow  horse. 

Two  rare  horses  found  in  the  Barstow  fauna,  like  the  earliest  forms 
of  the  horse  group,  have  back-teeth  with  short  crowns  not  adapted  for 
grazing.  One  belonging  in  the  genus  Hypohippus  was  a  large  three- 
toed  animal,  in  which  the  side-toes  are  much  larger  than  in  Merychippus. 
The  teeth  are  those  of  a  browsing,  not  of  a  grazing  animal.  The  feed- 
ing habits  of  this  horse  must  have  differed  very  considerably  from  those 
of  Merychippus,  and  it  probably  occupied  a  somewhat  different  range. 
The  other  rare  form  represents  a  species  of  Parahippus,  also  of  a  brows- 
ing rather  than  of  a  grazing  type.  It  may  be  repeated  that  Hypohippus, 
Parahippus  and  Protohippus  are  collectively  Imown  only  by  a  very  small 
number  of  specimens.  The  grazing  Merychippus  is  the  common  and 
characteristic  animal  of  the  fauna. 

Associated  with  the  horses  are  rare  remains  of  a  primitive  wild  pig 
or  peccary.  There  is  also  a  rare  oreodon,  one  of  the  late  representatives 
of  a  large  family,  which  is  perhaps  the  most  characteristic  American 


256 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


Chakacteeistic   Exposure  of  the  Maxix  Pleistocene   Lake-beds   ox   the  Nohth 

Bank  of  the  Mohave  River  xear  Field  Station  in  the  Manis  Basin. 

(Photograph  by  J.  P.  Buwalda.) 

mammal  group  in  the  whole  history  of  our  fauna.  It  included  creatures 
resembling  on  the  one  hand  the  pigs  and  on  the  other  hand  the  camels 
and  deer.  There  are  also  rare  remains  of  a  large  antelope  or  deer  of 
the  genus  Dromomeryx.  A  small  deer-antelope,  Merycodiis,  a  dainty 
creature  with  teeth  like  an  antelope  and  horns  like  a  deer,  is  represented 
at  several  localities  by  abundant  fragments  of  teeth,  limb-bones  and 


Bad-land  Structure  in  the  Manix  Basin.      U'hotograph  by  .T.  P.  Buwalda.) 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       257 

antlers.  A  large  four-tusked  mastodon  is  known  by  numerous  frag- 
ments and  occasional  complete  bones  or  large  pieces  of  tusk. 

Next  to  the  horses  the  most  numerous  of  the  hoofed  animals  are  the 
camels.  They  are  known  by  at  least  three  types.  One  is  a  small  form  of 
the  genus  Procamelus.  A  second  and  very  large  type  probably  belongs 
to  the  genus  Pliauchenia.  A  third  form  with  very  large  long  limbs,  a 
larger  animal  than  the  living  camel,  is  possibly  to  be  referred  to  the 
genus  AUicamelus.     Other  genera  may  be  present  in  the  collection. 

Of  the  remaining  fauna,  the  rodents  are  represented  by  rabbits. 
The  carnivores  are  known  by  at  least  eight  species,  including  three 
large  cats,  at  least  one  of  which  is  a  sabre-tooth  with  the  greatly  de- 
veloped upper  canine  teeth.  Two  others  may  belong  to  the  true  cats, 
represented  by  the  modern  puma  and  wild  cat,  without  the  saber-like 
upper  teeth.  The  dogs  include  one  small  form  similar  to  the  fox,  A 
second  type,  Tephrocyon,  one  of  the  most  characteristic  animals  of  this 
horizon,  is  a  form  considered  by  many  to  be  possibly  the  ancestor  of  the 
modern  dogs  and  wolves.  The  most  abundant  creatures  of  the  dog 
group  are  found  in  one  or  two  representatives  of  the  genus  Aelurodon, 
very  large,  very  heavy-jawed  animals,  much  larger  than  any  modern 
wolves,  and  even  greatly  exceeding  the  extinct  dire  wolf,  now  so  well 
known  by  abundant  skeletons  from  the  asphalt  deposits  of  Eancho  La 
Brea.  These  animals  were  evidently  not  rare.  They  probably  lived 
off  the  herds  of  large  ungulates,  sometimes  bringing  down  a  live  animal,  T 

sometimes  robbing  the  smaller  wolves  and  the  big  cats  of  their  prey. 
Their  unusually  massive  jaws  and  teeth  seem  built  to  serve  as  bone 
crushers,  and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  general  state  of  dismem- 
berment and  destruction  of  all  skeletons,  and  the  absence  of  satisfactory 
paleontologic  materials  in  the  Barstow  formation,  is  due  in  large  part 
to  the  destruction  of  these  scavengers. 

Birds  are  known  in  the  Upper  Miocene  beds  by  a  few  fragments 
representing  an  owl.  Eeptiles  are  represented  by  numerous  fragments, 
and  several  nearly  perfect  skeletons  of  a  large  tortoise  resembling  in  ► 

many  respects  the  living  desert  tortoises  of  the  Mohave. 

The  fauna  of  the  Upper  Miocene  is  as  a  whole  that  of  an  open 
country  affording  fairly  abundant  grass  and  herbage,  and  evidently 
better  watered  than  the  Mohave  Desert  of  the  present  day.  The  nu- 
merous remains  of  grazing  horses  of  the  MerycJiippus  type,  the  presence 
of  mastodons,  oreodons,  of  many  deer-antelope,  a  considerable  variety 
of  camels,  and  a  wild  pig  all  indicate  that  grass  and  other  nutritious 
vegetation  must  have  been  more  abundant  than  at  present.  The  rela- 
tively small  representation  of  oreodons,  and  of  browsing  horses  like 
Hypohippvs,  and  the  presence  of  large  tortoises  are  possibly  to  be  cor- 
related with  open  semi-arid  character  of  the  country. 

That  small  bodies  of  water  were  present  at  times  in  this  area  is 

VOL.   LXXXVI. — 18. 


258  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

shown  by  the  presence  of  many  fresh-water  molluscan  remains  at  cer- 
tain horizons. 

The  fauna  of  the  Barstow  beds  represents  a  stage  in  the  evolution  of 
Tertiary  mammalian  faunas  previously  not  distinctly  recognized  in  the 
Great  Basin  Province.  It  seems  clearly  later  than  the  Middle  Miocene 
life  stage  well  known  in  the  Mascall  beds  of  Oregon  and  in  the  Virgin 
Valley  beds  of  northern  Nevada.  The  fauna  is  markedly  older  than  the 
Rattlesnake  Pliocene  of  Oregon  and  the  Thousand  Creek  Pliocene  of 
^STevada,  representing  the  next  described  stages  following  the  Middle 
Miocene  in  the  Great  Basin.  The  fauna  of  the  Barstow  beds  has  few  if 
any  species  in  common  with  that  of  the  Eicardo  formation,  and  is  of  a 
distinctly  older  type.  Its  nearest  relationships  are  with  the  fauna  of 
the  Cedar  Mountain  region  of  southwestern  Nevada,  from  which  it 
possibly  differs  somewhat  in  stage. 

The  Second  Fauna,  the  Eicardo  Pliocene 

The  number  of  species  represented  in  the  Eicardo  fauna  is  approxi- 
mately equal  to  that  found  in  the  Barstow  Miocene  and  the  groups  of 
animals  represented  are  in  general  of  the  same  type.  Comparisons  be- 
tween these  two  faunas  or  life  stages  can  therefore  be  made  with  some 
degree  of  satisfaction.  Coupled  with  the  fact  that  the  ^Mohave  and 
Eicardo  faunas  comprise  an  approximately  equal  representation  of 
similar  groups,  it  is  a  matter  of  interest  to  note  the  almost  complete 
difference  between  the  species  represented  in  the  two,  and  that  with  one 
or  two  possible  exceptions  the  species  of  the  Eicardo  stage  represent  more 
specialized  or  more  progressive  stages  of  evolution  than  the  correspond- 
ing types  seen  in  the  Barstow  fauna. 

As  in  the  Mohave  stage,  we  find  the  Eicardo  collections  consisting 
mainly  of  horses  and  camels,  the  horses  furnishing  the  most  important 
and  most  characteristic  forms  thus  far  known. 

The  Eicardo  horses  are  of  at  least  three  types,  of  which  the  most 
common  includes  one  or  more  species  of  the  genus  Hipparion.  These 
are  large,  three-toed  forms  with  the  side-toes  reduced  and  the  grinding 
teeth  large.  They  resemble  to  some  extent  one  of  the  small  species  of 
the  Barstow  Miocene,  but  are  much  larger;  the  side-toes  are  more  re- 
duced ;  and  the  teeth  were  longer-crowned,  heavier,  and  of  more  compli- 
cated structure.  The  Eicardo  Hipparion  differs  from  most  of  the 
species  referred  to  this  genus  in  America,  and  belongs  to  the  true  Hip- 
parion  type,  which  J.  W.  Gidley  considers  as  characteristic  of  the 
Old  World,  in  contrast  to  a  Xew  World  form,  NeoJiipparion.  Many  of 
the  teeth  of  the  Eicardo  species  are  practically  indistinguishable  from 
these  of  Hipparion  richthofeni,  a  species  abundantly  represented  in  the 
early  Pliocene  or  late  Miocene  of  China.  It  has  generally  been  assumed 
that  the  Old  World  horses  of  the  Hipparion  type  are  descended  from 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       259 

North  American  stock.  ISTo  types  from  which  Hipparion  might  presum- 
ably be  immediately  derived  by  evolution  are  known  in  the  Old  AVorld 
formations  of  the  period  just  anterior  to  that  in  which  Hipparion  first 
appears,  whereas  in  North  America  stages  of  evolution  leading  toward 
Hipparion  are  found  in  formations  representing  the  period  preceding 
the  birth  of  this  genus.  So  far  as  the  writer's  observations  have  been 
carried,  an  evolutionary  sequence  leading  to  the  genus,  Hipparion  is 
nowhere  more  clearly  suggested  than  in  the  relation  of  the  Hipparion 
of  Eicardo  to  the  Hipparion-like  Merychippvs  of  the  Barstow  Miocene. 
It  seems  not  improbable  that  the  Old  World  Hipparion  is  derived  from 
a  West- American  form  near  the  Barstow  Merychippus. 

Living  in  the  same  region  with  the  Hipparion  in  Eicardo  time  were 
at  least  two  other  types  of  horses  of  an  advanced  stage  referred  to  the 
genus  PUohippus.  The  animals  of  these  species  were  nearly  as  large  as 
the  smaller  forms  of  the  modern  domestic  horse.  Their  teeth  were  long- 
crowned  and  well  adapted  to  grazing  as  in  existing  forms,  but  their 
feet  still  bore  small  side-toes  somewhat  as  in  Merychippus  of  the 
Barstow.  The  pattern  of  their  teeth  is  quite  unlike  that  of  the  Hip- 
parion and  considerable  differences  separate  them  in  skeletal  structure. 
They  presumably  decupled  a  different  niche  in  the  organization  of 
the  fauna,  but  what  it  was  is  not  entirely  clear. 

In  the  Eicardo  fauna,  as  at  Barstow,  we  find  a  rare  oreodon,  the  last  /^ 

representative  of  this  important  family  known  west  of  the  Wasatch. 
The  Eicardo  type  follows  the  rule  in  being  more  speciaKzed  than  that 
in  the  Barstow  Upper  Miocene.  Little  deer-antelope  much  like  those 
of  Barstow  are  also  known  by  the  last  representatives  in  the  Great 
Basin.  Eodents  are  rare.  The  mastodon  group  is  still  represented 
by  animals  with  four  tusks,  a  pair  being  present  in  the  lower  jaw  as  well 
as  one  in  the  upper  jaw. 

Of  the  camels  there  are  several  species  known  from  Eicardo.  They 
represent  genera  similar  to  those  in  the  Barstow  Miocene,  but  are  gen- 
erally of  larger  type,  and  are  presumably  in  a  large  part  specifically 
different.  Carnivores  are  relatively  abundant.  Large  heavy-headed 
selurodons  like  those  of  Barstow  are  present,  but  possibly  all  belong  to 
new  species.  With  these  are  other  forms  of  the  same  group,  but  larger 
and  stronger.  There  is  a  marten  of  a  new  species.  Of  the  cats,  one  is  a 
saber-tooth  of  a  rare  type  somewhat  similar  to  a  species  known  in  India. 
One  specimen,  belonging  to  a  gigantic  animal  of  the  Felis  or  true  cat 
type,  was  at  least  as  large  as  a  male  African  lion  of  the  present  day. 
Another  specimen  is  from  a  smaller  cat  possibly  like  a  puma. 

Large  tortoises  are  known  in  the  Eicardo,  as  at  Barstow.  At  least 
one  form  seems  to  differ  in  its  character  from  the  Barstow  species. 

In  the  table  on  page  262  a  comparison  of  the  Eicardo  and  Barstow 
faunas  would  show  almost  complete  specific  separation  of  the  life  stages. 


i 


2  6o  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

This  difference  extends  in  a  considerable  measure  to  groups  of  the  rank 
of  genera;  as  in  the  case  of  the  horses,  in  which  Hipparion  replaces 
Merychippns.  As  has  been  noted  above,  in  nearly  all  cases  in  which 
it  has  been  possible  to  make  a  satisfactory  comparison  of  animals  in 
similar  groups,  the  Ricardo  types  are  seen  to  be  more  specialized  or 
more  progressive.  In  tlie  Carnivora  the  common  Tephrocyon  of  the 
Mohave  seems  to  have  disappeared.  A  single  specimen  shows  some  re- 
semblance to  that  genus,  but  is  not  comparable  to  any  Barstow  species. 
The  heavy-jawed  aslurodons,  which  are  the  characteristic  canids  of  the 
Ricardo  fauna,  seem  to  be  mainly,  if  not  entirely,  distinct,  and  are 
generally  more  specialized  than  those  from  the  Barstow  beds. 

The  fauna  of  the  Eicardo  beds  is  widely  different  from  that  of  the 
Middle  ]\Iiocene  west  of  the  Wasatch,  and  is  distinctly  more  advanced 
in  the  stage  of  progress  or  evolution.  It  is  quite  different  from  the 
Lower  Pliocene  of  Thousand  Creek  of  jSTorthem  Nevada,  and  seems  less 
advanced.  It  differs  so  far  as  known  from  the  Rattlesnake  Lower  Pli- 
ocene of  Oregon,  and  is  possibly  somewhat  older. 

The  beds  in  which  the  Eicardo  fauna  occurs  were  evidently  de- 
posited on  plains  lying  at  the  eastern  base  of  a  Pliocene  Sierra  range 
rising  to  a  height  of  several  thousand  feet  above  the  level  of  the  Great 
Basin  region.  The  elevation  of  the  Mohave  area  as  a  whole  was  prob- 
ably not  greater  than  at  present,  and  may  have  been  somewhat  less. 
The  Eicardo  deposits  are  probably  in  part  land-laid  and  in  part  water- 
laid.  The  volcanic  material  which  they  contain  may  at  times  have 
accumulated  rapidly,  but  seems  in  general  to  have  been  deposited  so 
slowly  that  the  region  was  nearly  continuously  habitable. 

The  Eicardo  fauna  consists  largely  of  forms  that  would  naturally 
prefer  to  inhabit  plains  areas,  or  might  thrive  in  partly  open,  level 
regions  at  least  as  well  as  in  other  environment.  Hipparion,  Pliohip- 
ptis,  the  camels,  and  Merycodus  would  find  this  a  favorable  habitat. 
The  carnivores  associated  with  them  would  not  necessarily  find  the 
surroundings  unfavorable,  provided  sufficient  cover  were  available.  The 
mastodons  and  oreodons  might  inhabit  the  plains  or  frequent  the  border 
of  the  mountain  area  to  the  west.  There  are  no  elements  in  the  Eicardo 
fauna  which  are  necessarily  considered  as  representatives  of  a  forest 
or  mountain  assemblage  washed  or  carried  out  on  the  plains. 

The  Eicardo  fauna  suggests  climatic  conditions  permitting  the  de- 
velopment of  vegetation  suitable  for  grazing  animals.  This  indicates 
a  somewhat  heavier  growth  of  grass  than  is  found  in  the  Mohave  at 
the  present  time.  There  is  nothing  in  the  constitution  of  the  fauna  to 
suggest  conditions  radically  different  from  those  obtaining  in  this 
region  to-day,  but  the  presumption  is  in  favor  of  less  extreme  aridity 
than  is  now  known  on  the  western  border  of  the  desert.  The  condi- 
tions obtaining  here  in  Eicardo  time  were  probably  more  nearly  like  the 


EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       261 

present  environment  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  Great  Valley  of 
California. 

The  Latest  Extinct  Fauna  of  the  Mohave, 
THE  Manix  Pleistocene 

The  fragmentary  remains  obtained  by  Mr.  Buwalda  from  the  de- 
posits of  Manix  Lake  include  only  scattered  bones  and  teeth  with  a  few 
shells  of  snails  and  clams.  The  collection  includes  the  bones  of  two 
horses  of  the  genus  Equus.  One  is  a  large  species  evidently  closely 
related  to  the  existing  horses.  The  other  is  a  much  smaller  form,  but 
evidently  of  the  same  genus.  There  are  two  camels;  one  near  the  size 
of  the  dromedary,  the  other  much  smaller.  The  larger  camel  was  prob- 
ably near  or  incidental  with  the  large  Camelops  known  by  splendid  spe- 
cimens from  Eancho  La  Brea.  The  other  species  is  unlike  any  Pleisto- 
cene camel  described  from  the  west.  There  are  bones  of  a  proboscidean, 
probably  an  elephant.  A  large  antelope,  probably  like  the  pronghorn 
is  known  by  a  single  bone.  Two  birds  like  existing  species  are  found 
in  this  fauna.  The  molluscs  are  fresh-water  species  closely  related  to 
living  forms. 

As  fragmentary  as  is  the  material  from  the  beds  of  Manix  Lake,  it 
represents  the  first  assemblage  of  mammalian  species  of  Pleistocene  age 
from  a  definitely  known  horizon  in  the  Mohave  region.  It  is,  in  fact, 
the  most  important  collection  made  at  any  single  locality  in  the  Pleisto- 
cene of  the  Great  Basin.  It  gives  for  the  first  time  a  grouping 
of  the  most  important  mammalian  forms  living  together  in  this  region 
at  any  particular  stage  in  the  Pleistocene. 

Taken  alone  these  fragmentary  specimens  might  never  tell  more 
than  a  very  short  story,  but  the  wonderful  Pleistocene  collection  ob- 
tained at  Eancho  La  Brea  just  across  the  range  to  the  west  will  ulti- 
mately furnish  comparative  material  adequate  to  make  possible  a  definite 
determination  of  the  animal  represented  by  every  bone  found  in  the 
Manix  beds. 

The  Manix  fauna  is  entirely  distinct  from  that  of  the  Kicardo.  The 
horses  are  of  the  latest  and  most  advanced  genus,  that  is  the  modern 
Equus,  which  includes  most  of  the  living  representatives  of  the  horse 
group.  The  larger  camels  seem  to  represent  the  last  genus  known  in 
North  America.  The  relationships  of  the  smaller  camel  are  as  yet 
uncertain.  If  the  antelope  is  near  the  pronghorn,  as  seems  probable, 
it  is  also  of  the  latest  Icnown  type. 

It  is  perhaps  unnecessary  to  state  that  the  Manix  fauna  differs  from 
that  of  the  present  day  in  the  inclusion  of  camels  and  a  proboscidean. 
When  it  is  better  known,  this  fauna  will  probably  be  found  to  contain 
few  if  any  modern  species. 


262 


THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


COMPARATIVE  Table  Showing  Kjsiown  History  of  the  Mammalian  Faunas 

IN  THE  Mohave  Area. 


Recent 

Pleistocene 

Pliocene 

Miocene 

Desert  Fauna 

Manix 

KiCARDO 

Barstow 

lieptilia 

BeptUia 

Reptilia 

Reptilia 

Tortoise 

Tortoise,  large 

Tortoise,  large 

Rattlesnake 

Carnivora 

Cai-nivora 

Carnivora 

Carnivora 

Desert  coyote 

Aelurodon,  3  spec- 

Aelurodon,   2    species 

ies  (Heavy-jawed 

(Heavy-jawed  dogs) 

dogs) 

Desert  kit  fox 

Tephrocyon    (Possible 
ancestor   of  modern 
wolves ) 

Dog,  small 

Dog,  very  large 

1  s  c  h  y  r  0  s  m  i  1  u  s 

Dog,  small 

(Sabre-tooth  cat ) 

Couf^ar 

True  cat,  very  large 

Sabre-tooth  cat,  large 

Desert  wild  cat 

True  cat,  medium 

size 

True  cat,  very  large 

California  raccoon 

Mai-ten 

Spotted  skunk 

Striped  skunk 

Ungulata 

Ungulata 

Ungulata 

Ungulata 

Equus,    large 

Hipparion,  2  spec- 

Hypoh i  pp  us     ( Forest- 

' 

(Horse) 

ies       (Advanced 
grazing-horse  , 
3-toed ) 

horse,  3-tocd) 

Equus,      small 

Pliohippus,    2     or 

Parahippus  (Browsing- 

(Horse) 

3    species     ( Ad- 

horse, 3-toed) 

vanced    grazing- 

Merychippus,  3  forms. 

horse,  3-toed) 

abundant    ((Irazing- 
horse,  3-toed) 
Protohippus,  rare  (Ad- 
van  ced  grazing- 
horse,  3-toed) 

Camelops?  (Camel, 

Procamelus?,     (a) 

Procamelus       (Camel, 

• 

large) 

(Camel,  small) 

small) 

Camel,  small 

Procamelus?,     (6) 
(Camel,  small) 

Alt icamelus?  (Tall 

Alticamelus?,     (Tall 

camel) 

camel ) 

Pliauchenia? 

Pliauchenia?    (Camel, 

(Camel,       very 

large) 

large) 

Merycochoerus?, 

Merycochoerus  (a) 

{b)  (Oreodon) 

(Oreodon) 

Prong-liorn      ante- 

Antelope,    large 

Merycodus    (Deer- 

Merycodus  (Deer-ante- 

lope 

(Proug-horn?) 

antelope) 

lope) 
Merycodus?  (Crowned 

deer-antelope) 
Dromomeryx   ( A  n  t  e  - 

lope-deer) 

Desert     bighorn 

sheep 

Proloscidea 

Proboscidea 

Proboscidea 

Elephant  or  Mas- 

Tet rabelodon? 

Tetrabelodon?     Four- 

todon 

(Four-  tusked 
mastodon) 

tusked  mastodon) 

Rodentia 

Rodentia 

Rodentia 

Rodentia 

Numerous    genera 

Fragments  only 

Fragments  only 

Fragments  only 

and  species 

EXTINCT  FAUNAS  OF  THE  MOHAVE  DESERT       263 

At  the  present  time  we  are  not  in  a  position  to  state  definitely  the 
exact  position  or  relationship  of  the  Manix  fauna  with  relation  to  other 
Pleistocene  life  in  the  west.  The  problem  of  the  Pleistocene  in  this 
region  is  complicated  and  large,  and  the  many  elements  still  require 
much  study  before  their  interrelations  can  be  determined.  The  Eancho 
La  Brea  fauna  seems  to  contain  elements  similar  to  those  of  Manix, 
whether  it  is  older  or  younger  is  not  yet  entirely  clear. 

The  significance  of  the  Manix  fauna  in  relation  to  its  environment 
is  unfortunately  not  large.  The  presence  of  camels,  horses,  and  ante- 
lopes indicates  a  climate  somewhat  more  humid  than  that  in  this 
region  at  the  present  time,  and  such  was  the  suggestion  furnished  by 
Mr.  Buwalda's  work  on  the  physical  history  of  the  Manix  Lake  basin. 

Significance  of  the  Faunal  Succession  in  the  Mohave 

The  physical  history  of  the  Mohave  area,  in  the  time  that  has 
passed  since  the  accumulation  of  the  oldest  formation  containing  a 
mammalian  fauna  in  this  basin,  is  only  a  small  part  of  the  long  and 
complicated  geologic  story  of  the  region;  but  the  changes  that  have 
occurred  since  the  earliest  of  these  records  of  life  were  completed  take 
on  stupendous  proportions  when  measured  against  human  standards 
of  stability.  Since  the  deposition  of  the  oldest  beds  of  the  Barstow 
section,  not  less  than  8,000  ft.  of  known  sediments  have  been  laid 
down  in  this  region,  and  there  are  evidences  of  long  periods  from  which 
the  only  record  that  we  have  is  of  erosion  instead  of  deposition.  The 
strata  of  both  the  Barstow  and  Eicardo  sections  have  been  subjected  to 
extreme  movements  of  the  earth's  crust  in  folding  and  faulting  or  break- 
ing. They  have  also  been  extensively  eroded  or  worn  down,  and  the 
strata  now  exposed  can  be  considered  only  as  remnants  of  the  original 
mass.  In  terms  of  accumulation  and  erosion  of  deposits,  judged  by 
the  best  estimates  that  we  can  make,  the  lapse  of  time  since  burial  of 
the  oldest  mammal  remains  in  this  region  must  be  very  long. 

Physical  changes  of  great  significance  in  the  history  of  this  region, 
and  of  the  life  in  it,  are  also  noted  in  variations  in  the  nature  of  the 
bordering  mountain  ranges.  At  present  the  Mohave  owes  its  distinc- 
tive characters  in  large  measure  to  separation  from  the  Pacific  coast  by 
high  ridges  to  the  west.  Throughout  a  large  part  of  the  known  life 
history  of  this  region,  a  barrier  seems  to  have  existed  between  the  Mo- 
have area  and  the  Pacific  coast  province.  The  height  of  the  separating 
wall  has  presumably  varied  much,  being  relatively  small  in  Miocene 
time,  and  probably  reaching  its  maximum  since  the  Eicardo  Pliocene. 
Variation  in  height  of. the  barrier  depended  on  the  balance  between 
erosion  constantly  wearing  it  down,  and  on  the  magnitude  of  crustal 
movements  concerned  in  the  making  of  the  mountain  chains.     To  some 


2  64  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

extent  variation  in  physical  conditions  in  the  Mohave  has  therefore 
been  related  to  stages  in  the  life  of  our  great  ranges.  The  latest  period 
in  the  history  of  the  mountains  is  the  stage  in  which  the  peaks  and  val- 
leys were  modeled  to  their  present  form  through  gradual  wearing  down 
by  ice,  water  and  chemical  decay.  The  clearly  visible  evidences  of  this 
last  epoch  mark  for  us  a  period  longer  than  the  full  span  of  human 
history.  In  the  story  of  the  mountains,  the  earlier  stages  standing 
in  relation  to  the  history  of  life  on  the  Mohave  are  observed  only 
through  study  of  a  complicated  geologic  problem,  but  the  measure  of 
these  early  stages  in  time  is  far  longer  than  that  of  the  latest  epoch. 

The  Barstow,  Eicardo  and  Manix  faunas  present  three  stages  in  the 
life  history  of  the  Mohave  area  within  the  extent  of  a  long  period  marked 
by  many  great  physical  changes.  The  records  of  these  faunas  are  incom- 
plete, and  should  be  considered  only  as  imperfect  pages  from  a  volume 
that  has  passed  through  fire,  flood,  earthquake  and  decay  incident  to 
the  passage  of  almost  limitless  time.  As  fragmentary  and  unsatisfac- 
tory as  the  story  is,  it  opens  to  us  a  wide  vision  of  previously  unknown 
life  history  in  this  region;  it  offers  significant  evidence  regarding  the 
origin,  evolution  and  migration  of  important  mammal  groups;  it  fur- 
nishes information  concerning  the  climatic  history  of  the  Mohave;  and 
it  contributes  largely  to  our  knowledge  of  the  chronology  of  great  crustal 
movements  in  western  North  America.  If  this  were  the  only  record 
known  in  the  world,  from  it  alone  we  could  gather  evidence  that  the 
life  of  the  earth  is  very  old,  that  this  life  has  completely  changed 
from  time  to  time,  and  that  in  each  successive  fauna  there  was  a 
nearer  approach  to  the  life  types  now  in  existence.  We  might  not  be 
able  from  the  Mohave  story  to  demonstrate  the  fact  of  evolution,  as  the 
fragments  are  small,  and  represent  periods  so  widely  separated  that  the 
suggestion  of  continuity  is  indistinct.  Taken  in  connection  with  the 
great  volume  of  records  now  available  from  other  regions  of  the  world, 
the  Mohave  story  serves  in  a  modest  way  to  fill  gaps  in  the  previously 
known  history;  and  in  its  close  relationship  to  faunas  remotely  sep- 
arated from  it  geographically,  it  illustrates  the  faunal  unity  of  the 
world  as  a  whole  when  the  broader  outlines  of  evolution  are  followed 
through  long  periods. 

The  story  of  the  Mohave  read  alone  cannot  do  less  than  impress  one 
with  the  magnitude  of  faunal  changes  and  with  their  apparent  definite 
trend  toward  the  life  of  to-day.  Eelated  to  other  records,  it  becomes 
a  part  of  the  great  world-scheme  of  life  growth  or  evolution  leading  up 
through  the  ages  to  the  present  living  world  of  which  we  are  a  part. 


INSECTS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  265 


INSECTS  OF  THE  PACIFIC 

Professor  VERNON  L.  KELLOGG 

WHEN  one  speaks  of  the  insects  of  the  Pacific,  they  are  the  insects 
of  the  Pacific  shores  and  Pacific  islands  that  one  refers  to. 
For  with  all  the  amazing  adaptiveness  of  insects  to  variety  of  habitat 
and  habit,  and  with  all  the  pressure  of  enormous  numbers  of  species  and 
individuals  to  drive  them  far  and  farther  and  into  all  the  available 
places  of  earth,  the  insects  have,  curiously,  so  far  not  invaded  the  oceans. 
Although  they  constitute  of  known  living  animal  kinds  a  full  two  thirds, 
perhaps  three  fourths,  they  are  restricted  in  habit  to  but  one  third  part 
of  the  earth's  surface,  to  wit,  its  dry  land  and  fresh  and  brackish  waters. 
The  real  salt  sea  is  tenantless  of  insects.  A  few  long-legged  surface- 
treading  kinds  are  found  on  ocean  waters  far  from  land,  but  these  are 
really  inhabitants  of  surface  sea-weed  patches,  which,  like  their  fresh- 
water cousins,  the  familiar  water-striders  or  skaters  of  ponds  and  quiet 
stream-pools,  can  run  or  glide  quickly  over  the  water's  surface,  denting 
but  not  breaking  the  supporting  surface  film. 

There  are  also  a  few  small  kinds  which  haunt  the  beaches  and  rocks 
between  tide  lines  for  sake  of  the  rich  harvest  of  food  thrown  up  by  the 
waves.  Such  a  kind  is  a  little  long-legged  fly  with  atrophied  wings, 
which  lives  on  the  headlands  of  the  California  shore  in  the  Monterey 
Bay  region.  Wlien  the  tide  is  out  it  runs  actively  about,  looking  like  a 
small  slender-bodied  spider,  over  the  rough,  damp  rocks  between  tide- 
times,  seeking  bits  of  organic  matter  thrown  up  by  the  waves  that  dash 
over  the  rocks  at  high  tide.  When  the  waters  come  back  these  odd  little 
flies  seek  refuge  under  small  silken  nets  they  have  spun  across  shallow 
depressions  in  the  rocks.  They  cling  desperately  to  the  under  side  of  the 
protecting  silken  mesh,  while  the  great  waves  dash  and  break  over  them. 
Of  course  they  are  much  of  the  time  actually  submerged  in  salt  water. 
But  they  stand  it. 

Recently  a  similar  and  closely  allied  fly  has  been  found  on  the  shores 
of  bleak  South  Georgia  Island  in  the  South  Atlantic  about  500  miles  east 
of  Patagonia.  And  another  tide-rock  fly  of  like  habits  is  known  from 
the  cold  and  tempestuous  Kerguelen  Island  of  the  South  Indian  Ocean. 

The  insects  of  the  Pacific  Islands  are,  however,  more  conspicuous  by 
the  kinds  familiarly  known  all  over  our  continent  than  by  the  sorts  pe- 
culiar to  the  islands.  In  fact,  what  with  the  same  old  house-flies  and 
blue-bottles,  mosquitoes  and  fleas,  cockroaches  and  bedbugs,  and  other 
familiar  close  companions  of  man,  the  insect  fauna  of  a  Pacific  island 
or  of  the  Pacific  coast  of  America  is  likely  to  be  disappointingly  familiar 
and  familiarly  troublesome. 


2  66  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

But  this  familiar  character  of  the  first  seen  and  most  often  seen 
insects  of  the  Pacific  points  an  important  moral  to  the  student  of  insect 
distribution  and  of  insect  troubles.  It  is  the  moral  of  man's  personal 
aid  in  the  wide  dissemination  of  insect  pests.  Wherever  he  goes,  by 
wagon,  train  or  ship,  he  carries  the  pests  with  him,  colonizes  them  wher- 
ever he  settles,  and  supports  them  in  their  new  homes  by  his  own  pres- 
ence and  the  presence  of  his  domesticated  animals,  his  quickly  planted 
grains  and  vegetables,  fruits  and  flowers. 

So  the  casually  inquisitive  visitor  to  Pacific  lands  will  find  himself 
irritated  by  the  same  kind  of  fleas,  mosquitoes,  buzzing  flies  and  biting 
flies,  nocturnal  bed-fellows,  the  same  old  croton  bugs  and  black  beetles 
and  the  rest  that  he  knows  in  the  east  and  middle  west. 

They  have  all  come  to  California  and  Oregon  and  Washington,  and 
gone  on  to  the  Hawaiian  and  Samoan  and  Philippine  Islands,  just  as 
many  of  them  came  from  Asia  to  Europe  and  Europe  to  the  Atlantio 
and  went  on  to  the  Mississippi  Valley  in  earlier  years.  And  this  emi- 
gration and  immigration  by  the  side  and  with  the  aid  of  man  accounts 
for  a  considerable  and,  from  the  economic  point  of  view,  a  very  impor- 
tant part  of  the  Pacific  insect  fauna.  For  most  of  the  worst  insect  pests 
of  California  and  the  rest  of  the  Pacific  coast  are  imported  and  compara- 
tively recently  imported  species. 

The  most  important  single  group  of  insects  to  the  citrus  and  de- 
ciduous fruit  growers  of  California  are  the  scale  insects  (Coccidse), 
small,  degenerate,  specialized,  wax-covered  and  protected  sap-sucking 
creatures,  of  hardly  the  seeming  of  an  insect  at  all.  The  San  Jose 
scale,  the  cottony-cushion  scale,  the  black  scale,  the  soft  brown  scale, 
the  red  orange  scale,  and  all  the  rest  of  the  scaly  crew  are  ever  threaten- 
ing clouds  on  the  fruit-grower's  horizon.  And  he  spends  annually  much 
time,  energ}'  and  money  in  fighting  back  the  swiftly  multiplying  hordes 
of  these  pests. 

Now  practically  all  of  them  are  natives  of  other  lands;  they  are 
man-aided  immigrants  into  California.  The  San  Jose  scale,  that  once 
threatened  the  whole  deciduous  fruit  interest  of  California,  came  from 
China  about  1875.  The  cottony-cushion  scale  that  similarly  once 
threatened  all  the  citrus  orchards  came  from  Australia  about  1868. 
And  the  story  of  the  coming,  and  settling,  and  finding  the  country  good, 
of  several  of  the  other  kinds  is  as  well  known. 

But,  fortunately,  the  economic  entomologists  have  learned  something 
to  their  advantage  from  this  kind  of  insect  immigration.  They  have 
learned  deliberately  to  hunt  for  and  import  good  bugs  to  fight  the  bad 
ones.  For  example,  it  was  discovered  that  the  Australian  cottony-cush- 
ion scale,  so  dangerous  a  pest  in  this  country,  was  not  so  dangerous  in 
Australia,  and  this  because  of  the  active  efforts  made  there  by  a  certain 
kind  of  little  black-and-rod  lady-bird  beetle  known  as  the  vedalia.     The 


INSECTS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  267 

scale  pest  had  got  carried  to  America  without  its  vedalia  enemy,  and, 
accordingly,  found  California  in  truth  the  promised  land.  Now  what 
more  common-sensible  than  deliberately  to  import  and  colonize  vedalia 
in  the  California  orange  and  lemon  orchards  ?  Which  was,  accordingly, 
done,  and  done  easily  and  successfully,  so  that  here,  as  in  Australia, 
vedalia  keeps  the  cottony-cushion  scale  insect  within  practically  harm- 
less bounds. 

Naturally  such  a  success  has  led  to  many  other  attempts  in  many 
other  similar  cases.  Perhaps  no  other  success  has  been  so  marked  as 
the  now  classic  first  one,  but  much  other  success  there  has  been,  both 
on  the  Pacific  coast  and  on  Pacific  islands,  notably  Hawaii,  and  also  in 
the  eastern  states.  The  great  fight  against  the  imported  foliage  and 
forest  tree  pests  of  New  England,  the  direful  gipsy  and  brown-tail 
moths,  is  resolving  itself  more  and  more  into  a  search  for  and  colonizing 
of  their  natural  parasites  in  Europe  and  Japan. 

Another  type  of  good  bug  brought  to  the  Pacific  coast  by  deliberate 
importation  and  carefully  nursed  to  an  efi^ective  colonization  is  the  curi- 
ous little  fig-was23,  Blastopliaga,  by  whose  means  the  "  caprification,'' 
i.  e.,  pollination,  of  figs  depends,  on  which  depends,  in  turn,  the  full 
size,  sweetness  and  the  nutty  flavor  of  the  best  commercial  figs.  The  fig 
is  a  hollow  but  fleshy  receptacle  with  many  minute  flowers  inside.  The 
Blastopliaga  eggs  are  laid  in  the  ovules  of  these  flowers,  and  thei'e  the 
tiny  grub  (larva)  lives  and  feeds  and  changes  finally  into  a  little 
chrysalid,  and  then  adult.  The  adult  male  Blastopliaga  is  a  curious  de- 
formed wingless  creature,  and  remains  in  the  fig  of  its  birth  until  it 
dies.  But  the  female  is  a  winged  active  insect  that  leaves  its  natal  and 
cradle  fig  and  flies  to  others  to  lay  its  eggs.  Curiously,  it  can  find 
suitable  egg-laying  places  only  in  the  wild  or  so-called  capri  figs  and  so 
does  not  leave  eggs  in  the  cultivated  figs,  but  in  walking  about  over  their 
flowers  it  dusts  them  with  pollen  brought  from  the  fig  last  visited,  and 
thus  produces  the  necessary  cross-pollination.  As  the  Blastopliaga,  lays 
no  eggs  in  the  domestic  figs,  it  is  necessary  to  keep  a  few  wild  fig-trees 
growing  in  or  near  the  orchard. 

But  not  all  the  Pacific  coast  insects  are  excessively  bad  bugs  or 
excessively  good  ones.  Some  call  for  attention  because  they  are  just 
beautiful,  or  singular,  or  of  unusual  habit  or  habitat.  And  these  are 
likely  to  seize  the  interest  of  most  of  us  more  certainly  than  the  pests. 
For,  after  all,  our  interest  in  nature  is  not  primarily  one  of  dollars  and 
cents.     It  is  one  of  curiosity  and  of  "  wanting  to  know." 

A  matter  that  lends  California's  fauna  and  flora  a  special  interest  to 
naturalists  is  the  peculiar  biogeographic  situation  of  the  state.  Biolog- 
ically, California  is  essentially  a  large  island,  shut  off  by  barriers  of 
actual  water  on  one  side  and  by  hot  desert  and  high  cold  mountain 
ranges  on  the  other,  with  the  ends  also  nearly  similarly  barred  by  desert 


2  68  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

and  mountain.  This  results  in  her  showing  the  characteristics  of  an 
island  fauna  and  flora,  with  their  numerous  monotypic  plants  and  ani- 
mals, unique,  solitary  kinds,  developed  in  isolation  and  under  special 
local  conditions.  California's  insect  fauna,  therefore,  includes  many 
unique  species  and  genera,  and  even  a  few  families,  not  found  else- 
where on  this  continent,  not  even  in  other  neighboring  states.  This 
makes  it  an  exceptionally  happy  hunting-ground  for  the  insect-collector 
and  systematist. 

But  not  only  does  its  biological  isolation  give  an  exceptional  interest 
to  its  insect  kinds,  but  its  extraordinary  topographic  and  climatic  diver- 
sity introduces  unusual  and  highly  contrasted  conditions  in  insect  living 
and,  through  environmental  influence,  produces  strange  kinds  of  special- 
ization of  structure  and  habit.  For  example,  the  brave  little  butterflies 
{Chionohas)  that  live  on  the  summits  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  are  bound 
to  attract  our  attention,  for  their  nearest  cousins  (other  species  of  the 
same  genus)  are  similar  butterflies  confined  to  the  summits  of  the 
Eocky  Mountains,  1,000  miles  away,  and  Mt.  Wasliington  in  New  Hamp- 
shire and  Mt.  Katahdin  in  Maine,  2,000  miles  farther.  These  lonely 
mountain-top  butterfly  kinds  are  good  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  alti- 
tude can  replace  latitude  in  distribution.  And  they  undoubtedly  owe 
their  marooning  on  widely  separated  peaks  to  their  neglect  to  follow  the 
retreating  glaciers  of  the  close  of  the  Great  Ice  time  northward,  re- 
maining, instead,  in  these  isolated  alpine  regions  where  conditions  have 
remained  practically  glacial. 

The  California  mountains,  especially  the  Coast  Eange,  have  another 
especially  interesting  group  of  insect  inhabitants  in  a  curious  small  fam- 
ily of  delicate,  long-legged,  stream-haunting  flies  called  net-winged 
midges  (Blypharoceridie).  Although  scattered  widely  over  the  world  in 
mountain  regions,  hardly  more  than  a  score  of  species  are  loiown,  of 
which  almost  one  half  are  peculiar  to  the  Pacific  coast.  Their  imma- 
ture life  is  passed,  as  larva  and  pupa,  in  the  swiftest  and  clearest  of 
mountain  streams,  clinging  by  strong  little  sucking  pads  to  the  smooth 
rock  bottom  on  the  verge  of  a  fall.  The  larvse  die  if  they  happen  into 
slow  or  stagnant  water,  and  many  of  the  delicate  flies  are  torn  away  by 
the  current  and  lost  as  they  emerge  from  the  pupje.  But,  neverthe- 
less, with  all  this  restriction  of  life  to  certain  narrow  and  dangerous 
conditions,  the  net-winged  midges,  like  the  water  ouzels,  near  whom 
they  domicile,  maintain  a  successful  existence  to  add  to  our  interest  in 
the  mountain  streams. 

Another  interesting  group  of  insects,  well  represented  in  California 
and  very  sparingly  elsewhere  in  this  country  or  anywhere  out  of  the 
tropics,  is  the  family  of  termites,  or  white  ants  (Termitidte).  Indeed, 
out  of  the  seven  species  loiown  to  occur  in  the  United  States,  but  one 
is  found  in  the  cast,  the  other  six  being  limited  to  the  southwest  and 


INSECTS  OF  THE  PACIFIC  269 

Pacific  coast.  Three  species  occur  in  California,  of  which  two  are  com- 
mon and  constantly  met  with.  One  (Termopsis  augusticolUs)  is  unusu- 
ally large,  and  makes  its  communal  nests  in  fallen  pine-trees,  telegraph 
and  telephone  poles  and  other  dry  wood.  I  have  found  colonies  con- 
taining thousands  of  individuals  in  fallen  trunks  of  the  great  trees  of  the 
Sierran  forest. 

Another  group  of  interesting  insects  unusually  well  represented  in 
California  are  the  gall-flies  (SynipidEe)  which  form  the  galls,  or,  better, 
stimulate  the  trees  to  form  the  galls,  on  oaks.  Seventy  species  of  these 
odd  little  flies  have  been  listed  for  the  state,  and  there  are  others  in 
Oregon  and  Washington.  As  each  species  has  its  own  special  kind  of 
gall,  the  oak-trees  of  the  Pacific  coast  often  bear  a  curiously  variable 
load  of  "  fruit "  besides  the  acorns. 

I  should  like  to  speak  of  some  of  the  west-coast  insects  of  unusual 
appearance  or  pattern,  the  kind  that  catch  the  eye  of  the  most  casual 
traveler,  such  as  the  giant,  tarantula-killing,  bronze-winged,  blue-black 
Pepsis  wasp,  that  indulges  in  battles-royal  with  the  big  hairy  tarantulas 
and  trap-door  spiders,  which  themselves,  though  not  insects,  are  near 
enough  related  to  them  to  warrant  mention  in  any  account  of  our  insect 
fauna.  But  I  may  not.  I  may  not  speak  for  them  at  all  except  to  say 
that  California  will  match  its  insects  against  the  similar  fauna  of  any 
other  state  for  interest  and  opportunity  for  fascinating  observation  and 
profitable  study. 


2  70  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


THE  PHYSIOLOGICAL  ASPECTS  OF  CALIFOENIA  FOE  THE 

BOTANIST 

By  Professor  GEORGE  J.  PEIRCE 

IT  is  almost  absurd  to  speak  under  one  title  of  a  region  which  forms 
the  Pacific  coast  of  the  United  States  for  a  distance  equal  to  that 
from  Key  West  to  New  York,  which  extends  from  sea-level  to  almost 
three  times  the  height  of  Mt.  Washington  and  from  the  Pacific  eastward 
as  far  as  Utica  lies  from  the  Atlantic.  But  geography  and  topography 
merely  make,  with  the  assistance  of  other  factors,  those  complexes  which 
we  call  climate  and  soil.  There  are,  therefore,  all  sorts  of  climate  from 
sub-tropical  to  Arctic, — air  which  ranges  from  dripping  to  dry,  water 
which  is  sweet  and  water  which  is  brine,  growth  which  is  constant  the 
year  round  or  as  regularly  periodic  as  winter  and  summer  in  the  intem- 
perate parts  of  the  "  temperate  "  zone.  There  are  districts  in  wliich  the 
daily  range  in  temperature  is  greater  than  the  seasonal  range,  soil  which 
bakes  to  brick  and  soil  which  blows  in  the  breeze,  and,  in  places,  light 
which  in  amount  and  in  composition  is  equaled  in  few  other  parts  of 
the  known  world. 

If  we  summarize  these  statements  we  shall  see  that,  so  far  as  plants 
are  concerned,  it  is  the  condition  and  the  amount  of  water  in  air  and 
soil  which  is  the  most  striking  factor  in  their  environment.  Water  is 
not  only  an  indispensable  food  material  and  the  medium  in  which  all  the 
other  food  materials  enter  the  plant,  but  it  also  regulates  the  kind  and 
the  quantity  of  light  which  reaches  the  earth's  surface.  By  so  doing  it 
regulates  the  prevailing  temperatures  also,  possibly  to  a  greater  degree 
than  many  of  us  realize. 

Water,  a  simple,  stable  compound  chemically,  we  seldom  think  about, 
taking  it  for  granted  when  we  have  it,  grumbling  when  anything  inter- 
feres with  its  supply  either  in  quantity  or  convenience.  The  average 
attitude  of  civilized  man  to  water  is  similar  to  his  feeling  about  the  daily 
newspaper.  He  thinks  little  or  not  at  all  about  the  labor  of  mind  and 
body  involved  in  the  regular  delivery  of  the  daily  paper  at  breakfast- 
time  at  his  front  door.  And  if  he  thinks  of  water  at  all,  it  is  only 
liquid  water,  of  which  he  demands  a  supply  ample  and  safe,  at  his  hand 
by  the  turn  of  a  faucet.  Y^'et  this  flowing  water  is  only  a  small  part  of 
what  he  needs.  The  water  in  the  pipes  is  but  a  small  fraction  of  the 
total  upon  which  not  only  his  comfort,  but  also  his  very  life  depends. 
The  water  in  the  soil,  brought  thither  as  snow  or  rain,  or  by  stream  and 
possibly  by  irrigating  ditch,  is  vastly  more  necessary  than  the  water  in 


CALIFORNIA  FOB  THE  BOTANIST  271 

the  pipe.  The  soil  water,  added  to  by  rain  and  stream,  conserved  by 
cloud  and  fog,  is  still  further  preserved,  for  the  plants  which  receive  it 
into  their  roots,  by  the  invisible  moisture  in  the  air.  For  the  greater  the 
humidity  the  less  the  evaporation  from  soil  and  living  body,  from  plant 
and  animal  alike.  Water  is  always  present,  wherever  there  is  a  living 
thing,  because,  in  addition  to  what  is  taken  into  the  living  body,  water 
is  formed  in  the  body  and  in  every  cell  in  which  respiration  is  taking 
place.  The  liberation  of  carbon  dioxide  in  plants  and  animals  is  but 
part  of  the  chemical  process  which  is  called  respiration.  Along  with 
carbon  dioxide,  water  also  is  formed  in  the  oxidation  of  the  carbon  com- 
pounds which  form  the  bulk  of  our  food.  This  is  exhaled,  or  escapes  by 
evaporation,  with  the  carbon  dioxide,  or  is  carried  off  or  used.  The 
character  of  the  organism  and  the  nature  of  the  environment  determine 
the  amount  and  the  manner  of  the  loss  of  water  by  the  body. 

These  are  all  truths  of  which  we  become  conscious  on  reflection,  but 
unless  contrasting  environments  are  close  together,  we  are  not  likely  to 
become  conscious  of  them.  In  the  Eocky  Mountains  one  may  see  the 
timbered  slopes  of  one  side  facing  the  grassy  slopes  across  the  valley. 
On  the  Pacific  coast,  chapparal  and  forest  cover  the  opposing  slopes, 
meeting  at  the  stream-bed  and  at  the  head  of  the  narrow  valleys  between 
the  ridges  of  the  Coast  Ranges.  Not  the  fires  of  the  Indians  nor  the 
clearings  of  the  whites  account  for  these  contrasts,  but  rather  the  rela- 
tions of  the  opposing  slopes  to  water,  its  supply  and  its  loss. 

The  long  valley  in  which  lies  the  Bay  of  San  Francisco  is  bounded 
by  ranges  of  mountains,  mainly  parallel  but  strikingly  different  on  the 
two  sides.  On  the  western  shore  of  the  Bay,  gently  rising  to  the  moun- 
tain rampart  which  bars  the  Pacific  Ocean  from  access,  forests  and  dense 
shrubby  growths,  chapparal,  cover  the  still  uncleared  slopes.  The 
forests  are  heaviest  in  the  passes,  for  though  the  rainfall  may  be  little 
or  no  greater  there,  and  the  run-off  no  less  rapid,  the  passes  are  fog 
channels.  Through  these  channels  the  ocean  fogs  flow,  bringing  mois- 
ture and  saving  moisture  in  soil  and  vegetation.  The  plants  of  these 
east  and  west  passes  are  strikingly  different  from  those  of  the  canons 
which  head  into  the  mountain  barrier.  In  the  fog  channels  one  sees 
the  foliage  and  the  luxuriant  growths  of  a  humid  clime:  the  closed 
canons  look  dry  and  have  drought  resisting  or  short-lived  plants  except 
close  to  the  streams,  many  of  which  run  only  for  a  short  time  after  the 
rainy  season  ends.  The  redwood  and  the  California  nutmeg  {Torreya 
californica)  may  be  taken  as  types  of  the  two  localities.  The  difference 
is  due  to  water. 

In  parts  of  the  world  where,  over  great  areas,  conditions  are  similar, 
and  the  water  supply  is  regularly  much  above  the  minimum  requirement, 
the  dependence  of  plants  and  animals  upon  water  is  much  less  clear,  the 
influence  of  water  upon  them  much  less  evident.     There  can  be  no 


2  72  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  2I0NTELY 

greater  contrast  in  appearance,  size,  texture  and  behavior,  than  is  offered 
by  the  two  commonest  and  most  characteristic  weeds  of  the  two  seasons, 
the  two  climates,  of  this  region,  namely  miner's  lettuce  (Montia  per- 
foliata)  and  tar-weed  (Hemizonia  luzulaefolia). 

^Jfiner's  lettuce,  so  named  because  used  in  the  early  gold-mining  days 
of  California  as  a  salad,  grows  in  the  rainy  season,  when  the  tempera- 
ture is  low,  often  below  freezing  at  night,  the  humidity  high,  and  the 
soil  wet  and  soft.  Its  tender,  fleshy,  but  not  thick  leaves  forming  a 
cup  upon  a  succulent  stem  which  is  carried  on  small  and  shallow  roots, 
are  traversed  by  slender  and  simple  vascular  bundles,  and  the  supporting 
tissues  are  slight  and  weak.  Its  growth  is  directly  proportional  to  the 
available  and  retainable  moisture,  for  it  can  hold  little  water  against 
dry  air.  In  a  season  of  scanty  rainfall  miner's  lettuce  is  short  and 
small,  presenting  almost  a  wizened  appearance,  and  as  the  dry  season 
comes  on  it  droops,  dries  and  disappears. 

Tar-weed,  so-called  because  of  the  odor  of  the  secretion  from  the 
glandular  hairs  borne  on  its  small  dry  leaves  and  the  slender  woody 
stem  and  branches,  is  a  well-rooted  summer  weed,  occupying  the  grain- 
fields  after  the  crop  is  harvested  or  continuing  long  after  the  native 
grasses  are  dry  and  dead  in  the  caked  soil,  growing  and  blooming  till 
the  rains  come  to  soften  it  and  to  start  its  successors.  It  reaches  its  best 
development  in  dry  and  solid  soil,  dry  air  and  daily  sunshine.  Its  con- 
sumption of  water  is  probably  not  less  than  that  of  miner's  lettuce,  but 
its  roots  can  get  water  and  the  rest  of  its  body  can  hold  it,  in  soil  and 
air  so  dry  that  miner's  lettuce  would  shrivel  and  die.  Or,  to  express  a 
more  general  truth,  water  determines  the  character  of  the  vegetation  of 
the  succeeding  seasons. 

Between  the  plants  of  the  desert  and  those  growing  in  the  spray  of  a 
waterfall  one  may  find  all  gradations,  not  only  within  the  limits  of  the 
state,  but  often  within  the  limits  of  an  afternoon's  walk.  Can  one  do 
the  like  elsewhere  on  this  continent  or  in  Europe? 

From  a  study  of  these  conditions  there  should  come  clarity  to  our 
conceptions  of  the  relations  of  water  and  plants,  and  ultimately  such  an 
extension  of  our  knowledge  of  these  relations  as  will  lead  not  only  to 
clarity,  but  to  completeness. 

Water,  as  a  clear  and  liquid  mass,  or  very  finely  divided  and  greatly 
diluted  by  the  air,  we  regard  as  nearly  perfectly  transparent,  though  we 
know  that  even  the  clearest  water  permits  the  penetration  of  light  for 
only  comparatively  short  distances  beneath  the  surface.  Cloud  and  fog, 
less  finely  divided  water  than  that  which  we  record  as  the  humidity  of 
the  air,  are  far  from  translucent.  We  are  beginning,  as  a  result  of 
studies  of  light  in  very  dry  air,  to  suspect  that  we  have  underestimated 
the  influence  of  water  upon  the  quality  and  the  amount  of  light  available 
for  plants  in  food-manufacture  and  acting  upon  them  as  a  stimulus  to 


CALIFORNIA  FOE  THE  BOTANIST  273 

other  activities.  If  an  effort  were  made,  I  have  no  doubt  that  a  very 
considerable  list  might  be  made  of  plants  known  to  bloom  and  to  fruit 
only  scantily  and  rarely  elsewhere  which  fruit  regularly  under  the 
stimulus  of  the  richer  and  more  abundant  light  which  penetrates  the 
dryer  atmosphere  of  the  Pacific  coast.  Liverworts  and  mosses,  "  shade- 
loving  "  here  as  elsewhere,  fruit  abundantly  and  regularly,  but  it  should 
be  stated  that  their  spores  do  not  always  reach  perfection  because  there 
may  not  be  time  enough  between  the  cessation  of  the  rains  and  the 
beginning  of  the  really  dry  season  for  them  to  mature  fully.  But,  given 
the  necessary  minimum  of  water  in  soil  and  air,  plants  will  fruit,  crops 
will  come,  the  more  abundantly  the  more  light  of  suitable  composition 
they  receive.  And  we  shall  presently  see  that  the  rays  of  the  upper  half 
of  the  spectrum,  the  violet  and  the  ultra-violet,  the  ones  most  absorbed  by 
water  and  water  vapor,  whether  visible  or  not,  are  the  ones  most  stimu- 
lating to  bloom  and  fruit.  Soil  fertility,  light  fertility,  and  water — 
these  three — and  the  greatest  of  these  is  water. 


VOL.  LXXXVI. — 19. 


2  74  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  OX  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

By  Professor  WILLIAM  F.  OGBURN 

THE  Pacific  coast  states  represent  a  future  empire.  Xature  has 
marked  them  off  by  natural  barriers  and  b}'  climate  more  distinctly 
than  any  other  division  of  the  United  States.  This  fact  so  impressed 
the  distinguished  author  of  the  "American  Commonwealth'"  that  he  spec- 
ulated upon  the  development  of  a  Pacific  coast  type  of  the  human  race 
and  pointed  out  that  this  region  might  quite  naturally  have  been  the 
home  of  a  separate  nation.  Oregon,  Washington  and  California  are 
equivalent  in  area  to  France  and  the  British  Isles.  Their  population, 
however,  is  only  four  and  a  half  million,  while  the  population  of  France 
and  the  British  Isles  is  eighty-five  million.  It  can  not  safely  be  pre- 
dicted that  these  far  western  states  will  ultimately  hold  so  dense  a  pop- 
ulation as  these  European  nations;  yet,  undoubtedly,  the  future  will 
see  an  immense  population  dwelling  in  these  new  states.  The  opening 
of  the  Panama  Canal  has  most  dramatically  forced  this  fact  on  the 
attention  of  present  inhabitants  of  the  Pacific  Coast. 

Here,  then,  an  empire  is  being  built.  To  the  student  of  science  it 
suggests  several  questions.  How  can  a  state  be  scientifically  built? 
AYhat  principles  do  the  researches  of  political  science  yield?  Should 
state-makers  use  the  experimental  method  ?  Will  a  democracy,  in  which 
the  common  people  rule,  be  sufficiently  far-sighted  and  capable  to  util- 
ize scientific  principles  in  building  their  future  state?  These  ques- 
tions arise  when  one  studies  the  experiences  of  the  Pacific  coast  states 
in  state-making.  It  is  the  purpose  of  this  paper  to  present  the  begin- 
ings  of  empire-building  in  AVashington,  Oregon  and  California  as  seen 
through  their  treatment  of  social  problems.  Before  such  a  presenta- 
tion is  made,  the  viewpoints  suggested  by  these  questions  need  some 
elaboration. 

The  first  question  is:  How  does  political  science  say  a  state  should 
be  scientifically  built?  Can  a  state  be  built  as  scientifically  as  an  engi- 
neer spans  the  East  Eiver  with  a  suspension  bridge?  Political  science 
is  not  as  exact  a  science  as  engineering,  yet  it  has  developed  sufficiently 
to  speak  definitely  about  the  making  of  states.  The  contributions  of 
this  science  to  state-craft  may  be  referred  to  as  the  theory  of  the  state. 

At  the  time  of  the  declaration  of  independence  by  the  American 
colonies,  the  theory  of  the  state  held  that  the  government  which  gov- 
erned least  governed  best.  Organized  government  as  then  known  in 
Europe  had  been  achieved  primarily  by  the  strong  man,  as  typified  by 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST      275 

the  monarch.  The  monarch  had  served  the  very  useful  purpose  of 
welding  heterogenous  tribes  into  a  more  or  less  unified  whole.  Through 
several  centuries  of  this  type  of  nation-making  the  peoples  finally  broke 
their  customs  of  faction  and  their  tribal  habits.  They  became  ac- 
customed to  living  in  the  larger  nation  under  a  common  language  and 
a  common  law.  This  type  of  the  strong  man's  work  was  then  done. 
Under  the  changed  circumstances  his  functioning  appeared  to  the  gov- 
erned as  tyrannical.  The  idea  of  political  liberty  grew.  Liberty  and 
government  seemed  to  form  a  paradox.  And  that  government  which 
governed  least  was  believed  to  govern  best. 

With  a  government  owned  by  the  people,  tyranny  and  government 
ceased  to  be  the  same  thing.  Government  and  liberty  were  no  longer 
incompatible.  But  the  idea  persisted^  as  is  usual  in  social  evolution, 
long  after  the  conditions  which  produced  the  idea  had  changed.  It 
persisted  perhaps  somewhat  longer  in  the  United  States  than  elsewhere 
because  of  the  strong  individualism  developed  by  a  nation  of  pioneers, 
conquering  the  wilderness  in  small  groups  with  little  aid  from  the 
government. 

Government  now  appears  as  collective  organized  effort.  Individuals 
can  do  little  acting  singly,  but  acting  through  collective  organized  effort 
undreamed-of  achievements  may  be  made.  The  world  has  hardly  be- 
gun to  see  the  possil)ilities  of  organization.  Hence  more  government 
is  desired.  This  is  particularly  true  in  modern  society  with  its  tre- 
mendous complexity  and  heterogeneity.  This  is  the  conception  of  the 
state  from  the  point  of  view  of  government.  How  is  it  from  the  point 
of  view  of  the  individual  and  liberty?  The  older  notions  of  liberty 
meant  freedom  from  an  overbearing  government,  freedom  to  pursue  life, 
liberty  and  happiness,  and  especially  to  own  property.  Several  years 
of  this  unrestrained  libert}'  liave  resulted  in  liberty  for  some,  but  not 
for  others.  The  socially  strong  and  the  kicky  have  been  successful,  but 
with  their  success  the  liberties  of  the  socially  weak  and  the  unlucky 
have  fared  very  badly.  The  liberties  of  many  must  therefore  be  pro- 
tected by  the  government.  This  is  what  is  meant  by  the  term  "social 
justice."  Furthermore,  with  the  conception  of  government  as  the  col- 
lective organized  effort  of  all  the  people,  the  idea  of  "the  common 
good "  is  being  emphasized  more  than  "  individual  rights '"  and  the 
term  "  social  freedom "  is  replacing  the  term  "  liberty."  Therefore, 
from  the  point  of  view  of  government  and  of  liberty  an  extension  of 
governmental  functions  is  desired.  And  the  advice  of  political  science 
on  state-building  is  that  modern  society  demands  a  government  devel- 
oped beyond  the  narrow  limits  of  the  past  to  the  aims  of  social  justice 
and  collective  effort.  It  will  be  interesting  to  observe  the  developments 
on  the  Pacific  coast  under  the  light  of  this  new  theory  of  the  state. 

Perhaps  the  reader  will  argue  that  this  new  theory  is,  after  all,  only 


2  76  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

a  theory  and  is  far  from  being  a  law  of  an  exact  science.  In  that  case 
if  the  new  states  build  on  this  new  theory  they  will  be  experimenting — 
a  method  which  has  the  high  approval  of  science.  It  has  often  been 
maintained  that  the  experimental  method  will  forever  be  denied  the 
sociologist.  For  how  can  a  sociologist  experiment  with  democracy,  as, 
for  instance,  a  physicist  experiments  in  his  laboratory  with  rays  of 
light?  It  would  indeed  be  a  strange  discovery,  if  it  were  found  that 
the  peoples  of  the  Pacific  coast  showed  a  willingness  to  experiment  with 
their  governments  and  were  actually  doing  so. 

With  some  thinkers  it  is  still  an  open  question  whether  democracy 
will  live.  Therefore  it  may  seem  absurd  to  discuss  the  ability  of  the 
common  people  to  build  a  state  scientifically.  Empire-builders  have 
formerly  been  men  like  Cfesar,  iSJ'apoleon,  Bismarck.  Can  the  plain 
citizen  do  it?  If  they  can,  it  means  that  the  masses  must  not  only 
become  aware  of  scientific  progress,  but  must  often  be  willing  to  look 
beyond  present  needs  and  strong  desires  to  the  far-removed  good  of  a 
future  goal.  The  first  requirement  is  that  they  shall  benefit  from  mis- 
takes of  the  past,  as,  for  instance,  the  mistakes  in  the  building  of  the 
United  States.  The  development  of  the  great  American  republic  has 
been  remarkable,  but  it  has  been  accomplished  at  an  enormous  cost. 
Natural  resources  have  not  been  conserved.  Social  good  has  been  sacri- 
ficed for  individual  gain.  And  the  people  are  now  looking  back  with 
regret  at  the  destroyed  forests,  at  the  lost  water  rights,  and  at  the  en- 
thronement of  special  privilege.  They  see  large  numbers  of  their  fel- 
low-citizens struggling  against  an  inadequate  standard  of  living  and 
weighted  down  with  poverty  and  ill-health  and  unemployment.  Will 
the  Pacific  coast  states  benefit  by  the  experience  of  the  United  States? 

The  preceding  paragraphs  suggest  the  interpretation  of  the  social 
order  on  the  Pacific  coast  as  presented  in  this  paper.  This  social  order 
is  both  distinctive  and  novel.  To  see  it  is  important  because  it  may  be 
a  glimpse  into  the  future  of  forty-five  other  states.  The  following 
pages  will  present  aspects  of  it  as  seen  through  legislative  enactments, 
excellent  indexes  of  the  organized  efforts  of  its  citizens.  For  this  pur- 
pose the  social  legislation  will  be  classified  into  four  groups:  changes 
in  the  form  of  government,  labor  legislation,  legislation  affecting  women 
and  general  welfare  legislation. 

In  governmental  changes  Oregon  is  the  leader.  Her  priority  in 
large  governmental  adaptation  has  given  rise  to  the  term,  the  Oregon 
system.  And  by  the  Oregon  system  is  meant  such  a  body  of  laws  as 
the  initiative  and  referendum,  the  direct  primary,  the  direct  election 
of  senators,  the  recall,  the  corrupt  practices  act  and  the  presidential 
preference  primary.  Associated  with  these  are  woman  suffrage,  home 
rule  for  cities  and  a  constitutional  amendment  making  it  possible  to 
adopt  proportional  representation.     The  Oregon  system  sprang  from 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST      277 

the  corruption  of  the  nineties.  The  people  were  dissatisfied  with 
their  state  legislature,  and  with  cause.  They  decided  to  make  some  of 
the  laws  themselves  and  to  have  the  right  of  rejecting  any  of  the  legis- 
lature's enactments  which  they  chose.  The  initiative  and  referendum, 
making  these  achievements  possible,  were  adopted  in  1902.  South 
Dakota  and  Utah  had  previously  passed  constitutional  amendments 
making  the  initiative  and  referendum  possible,  but  seem  to  have  made 
little  use  of  them.  California  began  popular  lawmaking  in  1911,  and 
Washington  in  1912.  Following  Oregon's  example,  there  are  now 
nineteen  states  that  practise  direct  legislation. 

Oregon  citizens  have  voted  in  seven  elections,  extending  over  a 
dozen  years,  on  one  hundred  and  thirty-six  measures,  adopting  fifty-one 
and  rejecting  eighty-five.  The  fifty  measures  adopted  include  all  the 
above  mentioned  laws  of  the  Oregon  system  and,  in  addition,  prohibi- 
tion, employer's  liability,  three-fourths  verdict  in  civil  cases,  eight  hour 
law  on  public  works,  and  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment. 

All  the  laws  so  far  mentioned  were  proposed  by  the  people  them- 
selves through  the  initiative  and  not  by  the  state  legislature,  as  indeed 
are  nearly  all  the  measures  which  are  voted  on  by  the  people.  Among 
the  eightj^-five  measures  rejected  are  a  state  income  tax,  several  single 
tax  measures,  measures  making  it  possible  to  abandon  the  general  prop- 
erty tax,  prohibition,  woman  suffrage,  eight  hour  law  for  women,  uni- 
versal eight  hour  law,  measures  providing  wholesale  changes  in  the 
state  constitution,  proportional  representation,  and  the  abolition  of  the 
senate. 

Some  results^  of  Oregon's  experiment  in  direct  legislation  are  the 
following.  A  body  of  excellent  laws  have  been  passed  with  surprisingly 
few  mistakes.  Some  good  measures  have  been  defeated — also  several 
radical  measures  and  a  number  of  measures  of  minor  importance.  The 
people  are  conservative  as  well  as  progressive.  For  the  education  of 
voters  the  initiative  and  referendum  are  unsurpassed.  The  voters  take 
a  good  deal  of  interest  in  lawmaking,  watching  the  ballot  carefully  for 
jokers  and  private  motives.  Seventy-five  per  cent,  of  those  who  vote, 
vote  on  the  measures.  All  classes  of  citizens  initiate  laws.  The 
voters  amend  their  constitution  as  readily  as  they  pass  bills.  The  tend- 
ency is  to  place  a  larger  number  of  measures  on  the  ballot.  The  effi- 
ciency of  representative  legislatures  seems  not  to  have  suffered,  but  per- 
haps to  have  gained. 

The  first  law  passed  by  the  initiative  in  Oregon  was  the  direct  pri- 
mary law.  The  direct  primary,  by  permitting  voters  to  vote  directly  for 
nominations,  has  done  more  than  any  other  device  to  break  the  grip  of 

1  The  evidence  for  the  above  mentioned  conclusions  may  be  found  in  the 
following  papers:  Ogburn,  "Direct  Legislation  in  Oregon,"  Quarterly  Publi- 
cations of  the  American  Statistical  Association,  June,  1914;  and  Montague, 
"The  Oregon  System  at  Work,"  National  Municipal  Eeview,  April,  1914. 


2  78  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

machine  politics  and  to  restore  control  to  the  people.  Oregon  was  the 
second  state  to  adopt  the  direct  primary;  Wisconsin,  in  1903,  preceded 
Oregon  by  one  year.  Washington  followed  in  1907  and  California  in 
1909.  Xow  there  are  thirty-two  states  possessing  it,  not  counting  the 
southern  states  that  Jiave  long  had  the  white  primary.  The  effect  of 
direct  nominations  has  been  to  loosen  party  ties.  1\  rhaps  other  gov- 
ernmental agencies  have  assisted,  but  at  any  rate,  party  ties  bind  very 
lightly  on  the  Pacific  eoast.  Some  careful  observers  think  that  the 
direct  primary  has  finished  its  work  in  Oregon  and  that  it  has  left  an 
expensive  and  troublesome  double  elective  system.  Hence  Portland, 
Oregon,  is  found  by  1913  adopting  a  non-party  preferential  system  of 
voting  that  necessitates  only  one  election  and  provides  approximately 
majority  rule  by  the  counting  of  second  and  third  clioice  votes.  Wash- 
ington also  has  a  preferential  system  for  state  elections.  The  system 
is  somewhat  technical,  but  seems  to  have  produced  excellent  results  in 
the  few  elections  in  which  it  has  been  tried. 

In  the  Oregon  direct-primary  law  was  found  a  curious  clause  known 
as  "  Statement  No.  1."  The  operation  of  '"  Statement  Xo.  1 "'  resulted 
in  the  direct  election  of  United  States  senators  without  the  adoption 
of  a  constitutional  amendment  to  that  effect.  "  Statement  Xo.  1 "  was 
simply  a  statement,  which  might  or  might  not  be  made  by  a  candidate 
for  the  state  legislature,  to  the  effect  that  he  would  vote  in  the  state 
legislature  for  the  people's  choice  for  United  States  senator.  The  can- 
didate felt  that  his  chances  of  election  were  better  if  he  thus  pledged 
himself.  Although  a  majority  of  the  candidates  "  took  "  the  statement, 
the  fight  to  make  it  effective  was  dramatic.  It  was  so  successful,  how- 
ever, that  a  republican  legislature  was  forced  to  elect  a  democrat  for 
senator.  Attention  is  called  to  "  Statement  Xo.  1  "  because  it  was  a 
genuine  invention,  the  rarest  of  phenomena  in  politics.  Other  states 
followed  Oregon's  example.  All  such  devices  lost  their  force,  however, 
when  the  constitution  of  the  United  States  was  so  amended  that 
senators  are  no  loiiger  elected  by  the  state  legislatures,  but  directly  by 
the  people. 

Associated  in  spirit  with  the  initiative  and  referendimi  is  the  recall 
of  public  officials  at  the  will  of  the  voters  before  the  expiration  of  their 
terms.  Oregon  adopted  the  recall  in  1908,  and  was  the  first  state  to  do 
so.  California  followed  in  1911  and  Washington  in  191 -2.  At  the 
present  time  ten  other  states  have  the  recall.  The  recall  has  precipi- 
tated much  argument  concerning  the  whims  of  democracy  and  mob 
psychology.  ,  However,  experience  shows  that  it  has  not  been  used  very 
much.  The  most  conspicuous  cases  are  the  recalls  of  a  mayor  and  an 
occasional  councilman.  The  failure  to  use  it  is  not  due  to  the  number 
of  signatures  necessary  to  put  it  in  operation,  but  rather  to  the  difficulty 
in  securing  an  able  candidate  to  run  against  the  recalled  official  and 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST       279 

tlie  fear  on  the  part  of  the  recallers  of  the  wrath  of  the  electorate  at  the 
expense  of  another  election.  An  interesting  and  much-discnssed  fea- 
ture is  the  recall  of  judges.  Oregon  and  California  permit  tlie  recall 
of  judges ;  but  they  do  not  seem  disposed  to  recall  them. 

In  the  field  of  local  government  the  cities  have  home  rule.  For- 
merl}'  the  treatment  of  many  strictly  city  problems  was  ordered  by  a 
state  legislature  many  miles  away  and  composed  largely  of  representa- 
tives from  rural  districts.  This  led  inevitably  to  the  infusion  of  state 
and  national  party  issues  into  city  affairs,  where  they  obviously  had  no 
place,  and  to  the  development  of  "the  systems,"  manipulations  and 
patronage.  The  commission  form  of  government  is  found  in  large 
cities  in  the  three  states  and  there  is  the  local  initiative,  referendum 
and  recall.  One  may  also  see  here  an  example  in  one  of  the  smaller 
towns  of  the  city  manager  plan. 

Several  changes  in  governmental  procedure  have  been  suggested. 
Prominent  is  budget  procedure.  California,  through  its  state  board  of 
control,  has  taken  the  lead  in  budget-making.  In  1913  two  weeks  be- 
fore the  state  legislature  convened  a  scientific  budget  was  presented 
which  resulted  in  a  saving,  it  is  claimed,  of  over  $3,000,000.  Other 
states  have  followed  and  proposals  of  budget  reform  are  being  made  in 
Washington  and  Oregon.  A  consolidation  of  the  various  state  boards 
and  commissions  and  a  reorganization  of  the  administrative  depart- 
ments on  the  model  of  the  United  States  cabinet  has  been  widely 
favored  in  Oregon  and  is  expected  soon.  The  program  also  calls  for 
the  short  ballot.  Oregon  has  voted,  though  unsuccessfully,  for  propor- 
tional representation,  the  abolition  of  the  senate  and  a  union  of  the 
legislature  and  the  executive.  The  future  of  these  latter  proposals  is 
uncertain.  The  record  of  Oregon,  California  and  Washington  in  gov- 
ernmental changes  has  been  one  of  brilliant  experiment. 

The  greatest  extension  of  the  fimctions  of  government  for  social 
freedom  is  in  legislation  affecting  the  wage-earner.  Policies  of  liberty 
and  of  individualism  have  not  meant  liberty  and  individuality  for  the 
wage-earner.  He  has  been  unprotected.  He  has  borne  the  toll  of 
hazard  in  industry  and  often  accommodated  himself  to  a  standard  of 
living  that  is  far  from  meeting  the  requirements  of  a  democracy.  The 
field  of  labor  is  the  scene  of  the  struggle  for  social  justice.  The  labor 
problem  and  the  status  of  industry  are  intimately  related.  Industry 
in  the  west  has  not  reached  the  large  development  of  the  eastern  states. 
Hence  large  and  acute  labor  situations  have  not  given  rise  in  the  west 
to  so  urgent  a  need  of  labor  legislation.  Furthermore,  the  Pacific  coast 
is  very  eager  for  capital  to  seek  industrial  investment  within  its  do- 
mains. But  labor  legislation  may  raise  the  cost  of  production  as  com- 
pared with  the  competitive  industry  of  other  states.  Hence  care  would 
seem  necessary  lest  industrial  development  be  discouraged.     But  should 


28o  TEE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

industry  be  purchased  at  the  cost  of  the  welfare  of  the  workers  ?  This 
is  the  problem  that  often  confronts  the  voter.  How  have  the  Pacific 
coast  states  met  this  dilemma? 

The  first  modern  labor  laws  protecting  the  wage-earner  were  those 
dealing  with  child  labor.  California  was  one  of  the  first  states  to  pro- 
vide child-labor  legislation.  Such  legislation  was  passed  in  1889, 
amended  in  1901  and  greatly  improved  in  1907.  Washington  and 
Oregon  passed  excellent  laws  in  1903.  There  have  been  further  amend- 
ments so  that  the  laws  in  these  three  states  have  a  general  age-limit  of 
fourteen  years,  prohibitions  of  night-work  by  children,  compulsory 
school  attendance  and  highly  important  provisions  for  adequate  en- 
forcement. Suggested  improvements  are  to  raise  the  general  age-limits 
and  to  provide  a  broader  foundation  of  education  through  a  longer 
period  of  compulsory  school  attendance. 

Society  is  very  much  interested  in  the  labor  laws  known  as  employ- 
er's liability  and  workmen's  compensation.  Modern  industry  bears  only 
a  slight  resemblance  to  the  craft  and  the  rural  work  dealt  with  by  the 
common  law.  Modern  industry  is  a  huge  machine  for  which  there  must 
be  workmen.  Every  year  men,  like  machinery,  are  cast  on  the  scrap  heap. 
Under  the  common  law  there  is  no  adequate  financial  aid  for  widow 
and  children  or  for  a  dragged-out  life  as  a  cripple.  California,  Wash- 
ington and  Oregon  early  developed  laws  making  employers  financially 
liable  by  recourse  to  the  courts  to  the  employees  for  accidents.  But  the 
courts  were  slow  and  strange  to  the  workmen;  lawyers  were  expensive, 
and  a  thriving  insurance  consumed  funds.  Hence  workmen's  compen- 
sation laws  making  payments  definite  and  automatic  were  passed.  Cali- 
fornia passed  a  workmen's  compensation  law  in  1911,  being  the  fifth 
state  to  put  it  into  effect.  Washington  passed  a  similar  law  the  same 
.year,  and  Oregon  also  in  1913.  At  the  close  of  1914  there  are  twenty- 
four  states  thus  protecting  workmen.  Washington  and  California  com- 
pel employers  to  operate  under  the  law,  while  Oregon's  law  is  elective, 
the  alternative  being  employer's  liability. 

Of  equal  consequence  to  workmen  are  occupational  diseases,  such  as 
anthrax,  compressed-air  illness  and  lead  poisoning.  California  in  1911 
was  the  second  state  to  ])ut  into  effect  a  law  requiring  the  reporting  of 
occupational  diseases,  and  her  law  has  served  as  a  model  for  many  of  the 
fifteen  other  states  which  now  make  such  requirements. 

Labor  has  also  been  attacking  its  problems  without  the  aid  of  legis- 
lation, namely,  through  the  labor  union.  The  methods  of  unions  have 
been  severely  criticized,  perhaps  more  than  their  aims.  This  is  to  be 
expected  because  labor  is  on  the  firing  line  of  conflict,  that  has  for  its 
stakes  bread  and  butter  and  housing.  The  daily  labor  of  workmen  is 
rough,  direct  and  concrete;  the  efforts  of  their  organization  are  of  the 
same  nature.     The  Pacific  coast  has  had  its  share  of  labor-union  activities. 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST      281 

But  experience  shows  that  the  more  completely  organized  labor  is,  the 
less  its  violence.  This  is  shown  by  the  experience  of  England,  of  the 
excellently  organized  trainmen  and  the  ill-organized  I.  W.  W.  The 
skilled  labor  on  the  Pacific  Coast  is  now  well-organized  as  compared 
to  other  states.  And  in  Seattle,  Portland,  and  San  Francisco,  organized 
labor  is  a  strong  force.  Figures  from  the  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics 
at  Washington,  D.  C,  show  that  in  general  organized  labor  draws 
slightly  higher  wages  and  works  slightly  shorter  hours  here  than  else- 
where.    Similarly,  the  laws  are  favorable  to  organized  labor. 

The  conditions  of  the  unskilled  and  the  unorganized  laborers  are 
not  so  favorable  on  the  Pacific  coast.  This  is  partly  due  to  the  nature 
of  some  of  the  main  industries  such  as  lumbering,  wheat  harvesting, 
the  raising  of  fruit  and  hops,  and  construction  work.  These  indus- 
tries are  seasonal  to  a  high  degree  and  the  jobs  last  only  a  short  while. 
This  means  that  the  living  conditions  are  of  the  roughest  sort.  As  the 
distances  are  great,  the  laborers  are  peculiarly  migratory.  The  rail- 
road tracks  are  their  highways  and  one  may  here  see  at  almost  any  time 
these  migratory  workers  walking  the  railroad  ties,  and  always  with 
blankets  rolled  in  bundles  on  their  backs.  The  blanket  pictures  sym- 
bolically their  crude  home  conditions  and  social  life.  These  conditions 
breed  the  I.  W.  W.  Here  is  a  great  need  for  the  state  to  extend  its 
functions  to  bring  a  real  liberty  and  tolerable  living  conditions.  Much 
depends  on  the  possible  success  of  these  unskilled  migratory  workers  in 
organizing.  So  far  there  has  been  little  success.  Calilfornia  has  re- 
cently made  an  investigation  of  labor  camps  and  has  enforced  better 
living  conditions.  The  free  public  employment  bureau  thoroughly  de- 
veloped and  publicly  controlled  would  greatly  help  the  situation.  The 
private  employment  agencies  of  the  present  time  are  greatly  criticized 
with  reference  to  their  private  nature,  the  number  of  them,  their  fees, 
their  relation  to  employers.  What  is  needed  is  an  organized  labor- 
market  with  adequate  machinery  for  finding  Jobs  and  filling  vacancies. 
Many  of  the  cities  have  free  employment  bureaus;  but,  comparatively, 
they  are  small  in  number,  and  have  not  been  able  to  compete  success- 
fully with  the  private  agencies.  California  has  a  law,  in  effect  in  1913, 
which  regulates  the  private  agencies  by  license  and  bond  and  by  return- 
ing fees  under  certain  conditions.  The  situation  was  so  bad  in  Wash- 
ington that  the  people  voted  at  the  1914  election  to  abolish  altogether 
the  private  agencies;  the  measure  adopted  did  not  even  provide  for 
public  bureaus.  A  measure  providing  for  labor  exchanges  is  being  pre- 
pared for  the  Oregon  legislature  meeting  in  1915. 

The  great  industries  of  the  Pacific  coast  are  highly  seasonal  and 
there  is  very  little  dove-tailing  of  them.  This  means  that  in  the  winter 
months  there  are  large  numbers  of  unemployed.  Their  numbers  by 
industries  are  given  in  the  federal  census.     They  leave  their  summer 


282  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

camps  and  flock  to  the  cities,  the  centers  of  employment  bureaus.  In 
years  of  business  depression  tlie  unskilled  worker  is  caught  unexpect- 
edly, as  indeed  is  industry.  In  such  times,  large  numbers  of  the  un- 
employed are  utterly  destitute.  The  winters  of  1913  and  1914  were 
times  of  such  experience.  Some  relief  in  shelter  and  food  was  provided 
by  the  cities;  also  a  little  work  which  was  in  the  nature  of  relief  was 
furnished.  This  was  done  through  the  city  and  county  officials  and 
through  the  collective  effort  of  the  aroused  civic  organizations.  Unem- 
ployment is  a  problem  as  difficult  to  solve  as  it  is  grave.  The  first  step 
in  diminishing  unemployment  is  to  provide  an  adequate  system  of  pub- 
lic employment  agencies.  This  will  probably  accomplish  more  in  re- 
ducing unemployment  than  is  commonly  supposed.  Another  proposal 
is  to  hold  over  cit}",  county  and  state  work  until  the  unemployed  season. 
In  the  northwest  there  is  movement  to  employ  the  unemployed  at  clear- 
ing land.  In  this  region  there  are  large  areas  of  stump-land.  If  the 
state  would  furnish  cheap  credit  to  the  farmer  both  the  rural  situation 
and  the  unemployed  would  be  benefited.  California  has  recently  ap- 
pointed a  commission  to  study  the  causes  and  effects  of  unemployment 
and  to  report. 

A  number  of  other  lal)or  conditions  have  received  the  attention  of 
tlio  legislators.  In  the  three  states,  labor  in  mines  is  limited  to  eight 
hours  and  the  hours  of  labor  on  railroads  are  carefully  regulated.  They 
also  have  the  eight-hour  day  on  public  works  as,  indeed,  have  twenty- 
three  other  states.  Oregon  has  a  ten-hour  law  for  men  in  mills  and 
factories.  California  has  an  important  law  providing  one  day's  rest  in 
seven.  This  has  been  on  the  statute  books  since  1893  but  only  recently 
has  much  attention  been  paid  to  its  enforcement.  The  most  important 
single  general  feature  of  labor  laws  is  the  enforcement  provisions.  En- 
forcement is  being  stressed  more  and  more  by  the  increasingly  important 
labor  bureaus  of  the  three  states,  particularly  in  regard  to  the  inspection 
of  factories  for  unsanitary  conditions  and  for  unguarded  machinery. 
California's  Bureau  of  Labor  Statistics  has  recently  been  very  active. 
The  hours  of  labor  permitted  women  in  industry  are  definitely  re- 
stricted ;  this  feature  will  be  discussed  in  a  later  paragraph.  The  sub- 
ject of  old-age  pensions  has  been  little  discussed.  The  present-day 
worker  tends  to  become  unfit  for  the  pace  of  modern  industry  at  a  com- 
paratively early  age,  at  a  time  of  life  when  the  professional  man  is 
only  reaching  maturity.  This  forces  the  issue  of  old-age  pensions. 
California  in  1913  appointed  a  commission  of  five  to  investigate  and 
report  on  old-age  pensions.  Massachusetts  and  Wisconsin  have  similar 
commissions. 

This  summary  of  labor  legislation  shows  that  the  Pacific  coast  states 
have  advanced  labor  legislation  to  a  degree  quite  comparable  with  that  of 
their  governmental  reforms.     This  policy  has  not  been  wholly  approved. 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST      283 

The  strongest  criticism  is  concerned  with  the  welfare  of  business.  Busi- 
ness in  one  state  may  suifer  from  competition  with  business  in  another 
state  if  laws  which  affect  the  cost  of  production  are  unequal  in  tlic  two 
states.  Charges  of  this  nature  have  been  made  in  the  Pacific  coast 
states  with  reference  to  some  businesses.  It  is  to  be  observed,  however, 
that  labor  legislation  is  rapidly  spreading,  thus  reducing  the  evils  of 
competition  and  lack  of  uniformity.  For  instance,  in  a  very  few  years, 
workmen's  compensation  laws  have  spread  to  twenty-four  states.  Indeed 
the  rapid  spread  of  social  legislation  is  one  of  the  incidental  demonstra- 
tions of  this  paper. 

Of  all  classes  of  wage-earners,  women  most  need  protection.  They 
have  not  learned  to  organize  for  better  wages  and  shorter  hours,  and 
there  are  special  obstacles  to  their  doing  so.  Yet,  the  inroads  of 
machinery  into  the  home-occupations  are  throwing  large  numbers  of 
inexperienced  women  into  the  factory  and  the  store,  a  situation  not 
suited  to  a  policy  of  little  government  and  unrestrained  liberty.  And 
when  it  is  remembered  that  women  are  peculiarly  related  to  the  welfare 
of  the  race,  the  new  theory  of  the  state  seems  amply  warranted  in  legis- 
lating for  their  welfare.  The  new  states  of  the  Pacific  coast,  in  mould- 
ing their  social  order,  have  not  hesitated  to  provide  for  their  women 
citizens. 

Oregon  was  the  first  state  to  limit  extensively  the  hours  of  labor  for 
women;  in  1907,  a  ten-hour  law  was  adopted.  Maine  and  I^orth  Dakota 
had  previously  passed  ten-hour  laws  for  women,  but  these  were  for  a 
rather  limited  field  of  occupations.  Oregon's  ten-hour  law  is  famous 
in  being  the  first  to  be  declared  constitutional  by  the  supreme  court  of 
the  United  States.  California  and  Washington,  in  1911,  adopted  eight 
hour  laws  for  women  and  remained  unique  in  this  respect  until  1913, 
when  eight-hour  laws  were  passed  in  Arizona  and  Colorado.  In  1914, 
a  similar  law  was  given  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  hours  of  labor 
of  women  in  Oregon  have  been  further  restricted  under  the  minimum 
wage  law  for  women.  This  law  gives  the  commission  establishing  the 
minimum  wage  the  power  to  limit  hours  of  labor.  This  has  been  done 
varyingly  for  the   different  industries. 

Of  recent  labor  legislation  for  women,  the  minimum  wage  laws  have 
aroused  the  greatest  interest.  The  causes  necessitating  the  minimum 
wages  for  women  are  mainly  these.  The  development  of  the  factory 
and  the  consequent  break  down  of  home  industry  has  forced  large  num- 
bers of  women  to  seek  employment  outside  the  home;  and  the  large 
supply  of  women  means  a  low  wage.  The  supply  has  been  unevenly 
distributed  because  of  the  attractions  of  the  store  and  the  unattractive- 
ness  of  the  domestic  work  in  the  private  home.  The  situation  has  been 
further  aggravated  by  the  fact  that  some  girls  who  could  be  partially 
supported  by  parents  were  willing  to  work  at  very  low  wages.     These 


284  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

marginal  girls  thus  forced  down  the  wages  of  others  who  were  not  par- 
tially supported  at  home.  Facts  showing  these  conditions  in  Oregon 
were  determined  by  an  investigation  conducted  by  the  Oregon  branch 
of  the  consumer's  league.  The  report  claimed  that  "nearly  three  fifths 
of  the  women  employed  in  industries  in  Portland  receive  less  than 
$10.00  a  week,  which  is  the  minimum  weekly  wage  that  ought  to  be 
offered  to  any  self-supporting  woman  wage-earner  in  this  city."  Ac- 
cordingly, in  1913,  the  Oregon  Legislature  passed  a  minimum-wage 
law,  being  the  second  state  to  do  so.  The  law  was  the  first,  however, 
to  be  put  into  efliect.  Massachusetts  ]iad  previously  adopted  a  minimum- 
wage  law  in  1913,  but  was  slower  in  putting  it  into  effect.  Oregon's 
law  further  differed  from  Massachusetts's  in  providing  a  penalty  of  a 
fine  or  prison  sentence  for  violations.  Oregon's  law  served  as  a  model 
for  the  California  and  Washington  legislatures  of  1913.  Nine  states 
now  have  minimum  wage  laws  for  women. 

The  minimum  wage  laws  of  the  Pacific  coast  states  create  industrial 
welfare  commissions  with  the  power  of  setting  minimum  wages  for 
women.     These  wages  are  recommended  by  conferences  called  by  the 
commission  and  composed  of  emploj-ers  and  employees  of  the  particular 
industry  and  of  the  public,  each  equally  represented.     The  wage  is 
legally  set,  however,  only  after  a  public  hearing.    As  a  result  of  rulings 
by  the  industrial  welfare  commission,  the  employers  of  industry  now 
pay  all  women  wage-earners  in  Oregon  at  least  $8.25  a  week.     In 
Portland,  the  only  large  city  in  Oregon,  the  minimum  wage  is  $8.64 
a  week  in  manufacturing  establishments  and  $9.25  in  offices  and  mer- 
cantile houses.    Apprentices  may  work  at  $6.00  a  week.     In  Washing- 
ton, the  minimum  wage  has  been  set  at  $8.90  in  manufacturing  es- 
tablishments, $10.00  in  stores,  and  $9.00  in  telephone  and  telegraph 
offices  and  in  laundries.    The  Washington  apprenticeship  ruling  is  some- 
what better  in  that  it  limits  the  number  of  apprentices  and  the  length  of 
time  of  apprenticeship.     The  variation  in  the  minimum  wages  is  due  to 
the  theory  that  the  wage  should  be  a  living  wage.     As  to  the  effect  of 
the  minimum  wage  on  business,  the  worker  and  society,  no  official  re- 
ports or  investigations  have  been  published,  although  such  reports  are 
expected  in  a  few  months  from  the  industrial  welfare  commissions  and 
from  the  national  bureau  of  labor  statistics.     However,  the  mercantile 
employers  of  Portland  in  the  summer  of  1914  testified  before  the 
federal  industrial  relations  commission:   (1)  that  the  number  of  em- 
ployees whose  wages  were  increased  was  twenty-two  per  cent,  of  the 
total  number  of  female  employees,  and  that  the  amount  of  such  increase 
in  relation  to  the  total  payroll  of  both  men  and  women  was  two  per 
cent.;  (2)  that  "as  nearly  as  could  be  ascertained,  no  employees  were 
discharged";  and  (3)   that  the  general  effect  on  business  was  "neg- 
ligible."    Perhaps  the  strongest  criticism  of  this  testimony  being  typ- 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST      285 

ical  would  relate  to  the  number  of  employees  discharged.  In  Oregon 
there  have  been  a  score  or  more  of  prosecutions. 

The  welfare  of  the  race  and  of  women  is  further  protected  by 
mothers'  pension  laws.  These  laws  provide  that  a  woman  witli  young 
children  whose  husband  is  dead  or  incapacitated  shall  receive  compen- 
sation if  she  or  her  children  are  dependent  on  her  for  support.  This  is 
a  protection  for  the  disintegrating  home  of  modern  industrial  society 
and  a  protection  for  the  children  from  the  same  influences  that  have 
necessitated  the  juvenile  court.  California,  Oregon  and  Washington 
adopted  such  protective  measures  in  1913.  Prior  to  1913  only  two 
states,  Colorado  and  Illinois,  had  mothers'  pension  laws,  Now  they 
are  found  in  nineteen  states. 

The  most  widely  admitted  injustice  to  women  is  connected  with 
prostitution,  especially  in  its  commercial  aspects.  Eecent  years  have 
seen  a  nation-wide  vice  fight.  On  the  Pacific  coast  the  fight  has  been 
made,  particularly  in  the  cities,  through  vice  commissions  and  reform 
administrations;  Seattle,  Portland  and  Los  Angeles  being  notable  cases. 
Portland  has  adopted  what  is  known  as  the  tin-plate  ordinance  which 
provides  that  the  name  of  the  owner  of  every  rooming  house,  apartment 
and  hotel  must  be  placed  conspicuously  on  the  front  of  the  building. 
The  purpose  of  the  tin-plate  ordinance  is  to  fix  responsibility  on  the 
owners  of  the  buildings.  Cases  are  known  where  property  which 
ordinarily  rents  from  $40  to  $100  a  month  bi^iffgs  a  return  of  $350  a 
month  when  used  for  purposes  of  prostitution.  The  fact  is  on  record 
that  one  piece  of  property  in  San  Francisco  costing  $8,000  brought  in 
$2,100  a  week.  The  attack  has^^stfrfHlyce^niered.oiL.tlie- commercialized 
nature  of  the  social  evil.  The  unfortuna^^^ostitute  has  thus  yielded 
a  large  part  of  her  earnings  to  the  landlord,  the  lessee,  or  in  some  cases 
the  organization  which  more  or  less  controls  her.  Or  she  is  prosecuted 
in  the  courts,  and  must  pay  a  fine  perhaps  over  and  over  again.  The 
sinister  aspect  of  the  situation  is  that  some  one  other  than  the  prostitute 
reaps  these  dearly-paid-for  earnings  and  escapes,  while  added  suffering 
is  meted  to  her.  This  situation  explains  the  origin  of  the  so-called 
red-light  abatement  laws.  The  abatement  laws  permit  a  judge  to  close 
any  building  that  is  used  for  purposes  of  prostitution.  The  building, 
may  be  opened  again  by  giving  a  bond  equal  to  the  value  of  the  building 
with  the  pledge  not  to  allow  prostitution  within  the  building.  Wash- 
ington, Oregon  and  California  have  abatement  laws,  modeled  on  the 
recent  Iowa  law.  The  age  of  consent  in  each  of  these  three  states  is 
eighteen  years.  As  a  result  of  the  recent  experience  of  the  Pacific 
coast  states,  some  headway  has  been  made  in  fighting  the  sinister  com- 
mercialization of  prostitution. 

The  woman's  movement  in  its  political  aspects  is  well  developed  in 
the  west.     Women  may  now  vote  in  each  of  the  three  Pacific  coast  states. 


286  THE  POPULAR  SCIEyCE  MONTHLY 

\Yasliington  thus  extended  the  franchise  in  1910;  California,  in  1911; 
and  Oregon,  in  1912.  Previous  to  1910,  four  western  states,  Wyoming, 
Colorado,  Utah  and  Idaho,  had  permitted  woiiion  to  vote.  Now  twelve 
states  have  extended  the  franchise  to  women.  The  results  of  this  ex- 
tension of  the  suft'rage  are  naturally  of  great  interest.  Some  statistics 
of  the  numher  of  women  voting  have  heen  collected  in  different  places. 
The  relative  proportions  of  women  voting  to  men  voting  vary.  Taking 
into  consideration  the  fact  that  there  are  more  men  eligible  to  vote  than 
women,  an  approximate  average  would  show  that  about  three  quarters 
as  many  women  as  men  vote.  Women's  organizations  are  showing  in- 
creased interest  in  political  questions.  Political  speakers  often  find  that 
women  constitute  more  than  half  their  audience.  Coincident  with  the 
voting  of  women  is  the  prominence  given  to  moral  issues.  Prohibition 
and  the  abolition  of  capital  punishment  were  voted  at  the  1914  election 
in  Oregon,  these  measures  having  been  previously  defeated  at  a  recent 
election  in  which  only  men  voted.  This  does  not  prove  that  women 
carried  these  measures,  yet  the  general  opinion  seems  to  favor  this  con- 
clusion. Eecent  reform  administrations  in  Portland  and  Seattle  have 
been  attributed  partly  to  the  influence  of  women  voters.  There  is  also 
evidence  which  points  to  the  influence  of  women  in  bringing  health  and 
educational  measures  to  the  fore.  Two  members  of  the  Oregon  state 
legislature  in  1915  are  women. 

There  remains  to  be  considered  legislation  which  does  not  concern 
directly  instruments  of  government,  or  laborers  or  women  as  classes; 
this  may  be  called  welfare  legislation.  This  class  includes  such  topics 
as  taxation,  public  utilities,  j)risons,  education,  eugenics,  the  sale  of 
liquor  and  immigration. 

The  system  of  revenue  in  nearly  all  the  states  is  the  general  ju-op- 
erty  tax.  The  verdict  of  political  economists  is  that  it  is  unjust  and 
antiquated;  unjust  because  intangible  personality  escapes  taxation,  and 
antiquated  because  adapted  to  the  relatively  simple  condition  of  a  more 
equal  distribution  of  wealth  found  in  newer  communities.  The  general 
property  tax  is  supplemented  l)y  other  forms  of  revenue,  as  inlieritance 
taxes,  corporation  taxes  and  licenses,  so  that  some  states,  perhaps  not 
more  than  ten,  have  escaped  much  of  the  evil  resulting  from  the  gen- 
eral pro])erty  tax.  Fewer  than  this  number  of  states  have  definitdy 
abandoned  it,  having  separated  state  and  local  taxation.  California 
abandoned  the  general  property  tax  in  1910  and  acquired  the  separation 
of  state  and  local  revenues.  Oregon  has  on  two  occasions  voted  against 
proposals  leading  to  the  abandonment  of  the  general  property  tax. 
Every  election  for  the  last  few  years  in  Oregon  has  brought  forth  a 
good-sized  list  of  tax  measures  to  be  voted  on ;  and  not  many  of  them 
pass.  Intense  interest  in  Oregon  has  centered  on  I  lie  single  tax.  The 
single  tax  as  discussed  in  Oregon  means  the  raising  of  larger  propor- 
tions of  revenue  from  land  and  smaller  proportions  from  improve- 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST      287 

ments  and  industry.  The  single-taxers  claim  that  the  increasing  values 
of  land  are  made  by  the  community  and  that  the  community  should 
take  these  values  through  taxation.  They  furthermore  consider  the 
taxation  of  industry  as  a  hindrance  to  industrial  development  and  un- 
just. The  single-tax  measures  have  assumed  various  forms,  according 
to  the  imagined  taste  of  the  voters.  Three  times  they  have  been  voted 
down ;  though  the  election  returns  show  that  they  were  favored  by  about 
one  third  of  the  voters  of  Oregon. 

Street  railways  are  the  public  highways  of  the  modern  city  dweller, 
as  are  the  streets  for  the  inhabitant  of  a  small  town.  Hence  the  oppo- 
sition to  their  use  for  private  profit  and  the  insistence  on  their  regula- 
tion for  the  w^elfare  of  the  citizens  who  have  no  other  recourse  than  to 
use  them.  The  public's  interest  in  these  public  utilities  is  further 
heightened  by  the  close  relationship  that  has  existed  between  the  gov- 
ernments of  the  cities  and  the  officers  of  the  public  utility  companies. 
This  relationship  is  quite  natural,  but  in  some  cases  it  has  not  worked 
for  the  best  interests  of  the  public.  Hence  another  governmental  func- 
tion has  been  developed,  that  of  regulating  public  utilities.  California, 
Oregon  and  Washington  in  1911  passed  public  utility  acts  modeled  on 
the  Wisconsin  law,  placing  the  control  and  regulation  with  the  state 
railroad  commission.  There  are  a  few  instances  of  municipal  owner- 
ship of  street  railways  on  the  Pacific  coast.  Seattle  began  the  operation 
of  a  short  line  in  1914.  San  Francisco  affords  the  more  important 
instance,  being  the  first  large  city  in  the  United  States  to  own  and 
operate  a  municipal  street  railway.  The  Geary  Street  Railway  began 
operation  as  a  municipal  road  in  December,  1912,  after  a  long  fight 
begun  in  1896.  The  line  is  five  and  one  half  miles  long.  Its  operation 
has  been  successful  and  the  citizens  seem  pleased  with  it.  A  munici- 
pally owned  railway  is  also  being  run  to  the  fair  grounds  of  the  Pan- 
ama-Pacific Exposition. 

In  the  cleaning  up  of  prisons  and  the  bettering  of  conditions  of 
prison  labor,  the  Pacific  coast  states  have  taken  a  leading  place.  The 
theory  of  prison  reform  is  to  turn  prisoners  back  to  society  better  men 
and  women.  To  this  end  the  "honor  system"  has  developed.  This 
means  that  prisoners  are  permitted  to  work  at  their  various  occupations 
with  no  armed  guard,  bound  only  by  their  pledge  of  honor.  Published 
reports  state  that  there  are  no  more  escapes  than  under  the  old  system. 
The  "honor  system"  has  been  developed  in  Nevada,  Colorado  and  in  a 
few  prisons  in  Ohio  and  in  Xew  York ;  but  Oregon  is  notable  in  having 
proportionately  more  prisoners  working  without  guard.  The  "honor 
system  "  is  more  spectacular,  but  no  more  important  than  other  features 
of  prison  reform,  such  as  farm  colonies,  treatment  of  female  prisoners, 
medical  aid,  manual  training  shops  and  the  parole  system.  Progress 
in  these  features  has  been  especially  marked  in  California  during  the 
last  three  years.     The  private  leasing  of  convicts  by  contract  and  the 


288  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

inhuman  situation  which  often  develops  therefrom  have  been  prohibited 
in  Washington,  Oregon  and  California.  Washington  and  Oregon  in 
1912  and  in  1914,  respectively,  abolished  the  death  penalty. 

It  was  long  ago  realized  that  public  schools  are  foundation  stones 
of  efficient  democracy.  Their  maintenace  was  one  of  the  first  exten- 
sions of  the  government's  functions.  All  the  states  now  have  them. 
The  modern  social  movement  is  concerned  with  perfecting  the  already 
accepted  system.  The  efficiency  of  the  public  school  systems  of  the 
forty-eight  states  was  recently  investigated  by  the  Eussell  Sage  Founda- 
tion and  a  comparative  study  published  in  1912.  The  measurements  of 
efficiency  were  based  on  the  following  features;  children  in  school, 
school  plant,  expense  per  child,  school  days  per  child,  school  year,  at- 
tendance, expenditure  and  wealth,  daily  cost,  high  schools,  salaries. 
Ranked  according  to  these  standards,  Washington  stood  first  of  all  the 
states,  California  fourth  and  Oregon  fifteenth.  California  and  Wash- 
ington furnish  free  text-books  to  the  public  school  children. 

In  the  new  science  of  eugenics,  California  is  one  of  six  states  to 
require  the  sterilization  of  such  unfit  as  the  confirmed  criminals,  insane 
and  feeble-minded,  who  are  in  institutions.  Unfortunately,  there  are 
only  a  few  of  the  feeble-minded  confined  to  institutions.  The  Oregon 
legislature  passed  in  1913  a  sterilization  measure  which  was,  however, 
referred  to  the  people  and  defeated.  The  sterilization  laws  are  similar 
to  the  Indiana  law,  which  provides  for  a  rather  novel  and  simple  opera- 
tion which  prevents  the  conception  of  offspring  and  thus  safeguards  so- 
ciety against  the  transmission  of  socially  undesirable  hereditary  traits. 
These  laws  have  sometimes  fared  badly  with  the  courts  and  the  chang- 
ing governors.  Oregon  requires  that  the  applicant  for  a  marriage  li- 
cense shall  present  a  certificate  from  a  physician  stating  that  he  is  free 
from  venereal  disease. 

Oregon  and  Washington  in  1914  voted  in  favor  of  prohibiting  the 
sale  and  manufacture  of  liquor,  making  the  total  number  of  prohibition 
states  fourteen.  In  the  same  year  California  voted  on  prohibition,  but 
the  measure  failed  to  carry.     California,  however,  has  local  option. 

Immigration  is  a  very  serious  matter  for  the  Pacific  coast  states  at 
the  present  time.  Yet  little  has  been  done  to  receive  the  possibly  large 
number  of  immigrants  who  may  come  and  to  prevent  them  from  break- 
ing wage  scales,  from  congesting  the  cities  and  from  developing  bad 
housing  conditions.  The  trade  unions  of  the  Pacific  coast  have  held  a 
convention  on  the  subject.  The  most  important  step  has  been  taken  by 
California  in  creating  a  commission  on  immigration  and  housing,  with  a 
paid  secretary  and  an  annual  budget.  This  commission  has  made  a 
survey  showing  the  status  of  housing,  the  living  conditions  of  labor 
camps,  and  the  methods  of  the  various  exploiters  of  immigrants.  As  a 
result  of  this  survey,  it  is  recommended  that  the  state  tenement  house 
Act  of  1911  be  more  strictly  enforced,  that  the  commission  be  given  the 


SOCIAL  LEGISLATION  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST       289 

power  to  license  lodging  houses  used  l)y  iniinigi'auts,  and  that  health 
and  sanitation  rules  be  more  strictly  enforced  in  the  labor  camps. 

In  making  this  brief  survey  of  the  experience  of  the  Pacific  coast 
states  in  state-building,  the  author  has  no  doubt  omitted  several  im- 
portant features.  Such  omissions,  with  the  exception  of  two,  have  been 
made  because  it  was  thought  best  to  include  only  those  features  in  which 
the  Pacific  coast  states  were  somewhat  distinctive.  The  two  omissions 
just  referred  to  are  the  rural  problem  and  the  development  of  business. 
These  are  important,  but  are  without  the  limits  of  this  paper. 

The  conclusions  of  this  paper  show  that  in  empire-building  citizens 
of  a  democracy  have  not  hesitated  to  build  according  to  the  new  theory 
of  the  state  as  set  forth  by  the  researches  of  political  science,  a  theory 
that  demands  a  government  strongly  and  widely  developed  for  the  aims 
of  social  justice  and  collective  effort.  These  new  states  ha^•c  shown  t'tfi- 
ciency  and  built  with  dispatch.  Government  as  collective  organization 
and  effort  has  been  excellently  demonstrated.  The  unrestrained  liberty 
which  has  meant  injustice  to  others  or  to  the  group  has  in  many  ways 
been  restrained,  and  the  forgotten  rights  of  the  unprotected  have  not 
been  neglected.  The  new  states  have  not  hesitated  to  experiment.  It  is 
well  to  see  these  experiments  in  summary.  Oregon  was  the  first  state 
to  adopt  the  recall,  the  direct  election  of  senators,  the  presidential  pref- 
erence primary,  to  pass  an  extensive  ten-hour  law  for  women  and  to  put 
into  effect  the  minimum  wage  law  for  women.  California  and  Wash- 
ington were  first  to  adopt  the  eight-hour  law  for  women.  California 
was  the  first  state  in  scientific  budget  making.  Washington  was  first 
to  abolish  private  employment  bureaus  and  is  first  in  the  efficiency  of 
public  schools.  Oregon  was  third  to  provide  for  the  initiative  and  the 
referendum  and  was  first  to  develop  them.  Oregon  was  second  to  adopt 
the  direct  primary  and  California  was  second  to  put  into  effect  a  law  re- 
quiring the  reporting  of  industrial  diseases.  There  were  only  two  states 
to  precede  the  Pacific  coast  states  in  creating  mothers'  pensions.  In 
adopting  other  social  legislation,  while  not  the  first,  second  or  third 
states,  Washington,  Oregon  and  California  were  in  a  small  leading  group 
to  legislate  effectively  on  home  rule  for  cities,  child  labor,  hours  of  labor 
on  public  works,  factory  sanitation  and  inspection,  em.ployer's  lial)ility, 
eugenics,  prohibition,  prison  reform,  public  utilities,  municipal  owner- 
ship, the  social  evil  and  woman  suffrage.  The  success  of  these  experi- 
ments may  be  interpreted  by  observing  the  extent  to  which  other  states 
are  following  their  example.  To  see  the  new  social  order  of  the  Pacific 
coast,  social  legislation  should  be  looked  at  in  its  entirety.  This  social 
order  is  distinctive.  No  other  group  of  states  possesses  such  a  wealth 
of  social  legislation.  This  paper  has  aggregated  the  variety  of  cases 
found  among  these  Pacific  coast  states  and  it  is  a  very  imposing"  picture 
that  is  revealed. 

VOL.  LXXXV. — 20. 


2  90  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MOXTIILY 


THE  VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK,  CALIFORNIA 

Br  Pkofessor  KULIFF   S.   HOLWAY 

"^rOTWITH STANDING  vague  reports  of  early  settlers  it  now  seems 
-i^M  practically  certain  that  no  white  man  had  witnessed  an  eruption 
of  a  volcano  within  the  limits  of  California  until  May  30,  1914.  On 
that  day  Lassen  Peak,  a  well-known  old  volcanic  cone  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  state  situated  about  seventy-five  miles  southeasterly  from 
]\It.  Shasta,  suddenly  burst  into  explosive  action.  During  the  six 
months  that  have  elapsed  since  the  first  eruption  took  place,  including 
one  quiescent  period  of  twenty-three  days,  there  has  been  an  average  of 
one  eruption  every  three  days  with  no  indication  at  the  time  of  MTiting 
that  the  activity  has  ceased.  The  uniqueness  of  the  phenomena  as  part 
of  the  physiographic  processes  of  the  United  States^  inntes  some  de- 
tailed description  for  several  reasons. 

A  natural  curiosity  exists  concerning  the  events  which  have  actually 
occurred  and  also  as  to  the  most  probable  developments  in  the  future. 
Is  this  recent  activity  a  sign  of  the  rejuvenation  of  a  long  quiescent 
volcano  which  is  once  more  to  pour  forth  its  floods  of  lava  ?  Or  are  the 
outbursts  merely  the  last  relatively  feeble,  but  convulsive  efforts  preced- 
ing the  final  extinction  of  the  subterranean  forces  that  formerly  built  up 
the  old  lava  cone  still  after  centuries  of  erosion  towering  nearly  two 
miles  above  the  level  of  the  sea?  As  yet  reliable  forecasts  of  volcanic 
activity  are  not  made  on  a  scientific  basis,  but  it  is  hoped  that  the  fol- 
lowing pages  will  at  least  give  a  satisfactory  outline  of  the  history  of 
the  region  up  to  the  present  writing. 

Lassen  Peak  stands  in  the  southeastern  part  of  Shasta  Count}^ 
nearly  two  hundred  miles  from  San  Francisco.  According  to  the  Lassen 
Peak  topographic  sheet  (a  reconnaissance  map  surveyed  in  1882-84,  see 
Fig.  1 ) ,  the  mountain  is  ten  thousand  four  hundred  and  thirty-seven  feet 
in  elevation  and  is  approximately  in  latitude  40°  30'  N.  and  longitude 
121°  30'  W.  The  immediate  region  is  the  extreme  southern  portion  of 
that  great  tertiary  lava  flow  some  two  hundred  and  fifty  thousand  square 
miles  in  extent,  covering  not  only  northeastern  California  but  portions 
of  Oregon,  Washington,  Idaho  and  Nevada  as  well. 

1  Volcanic  eruptions  in  Washington  liave  been  reported  but  apparently  never 
studied  at  close  range.  Professor  George  Davidson  reports  seeing  Mt.  Baker  in 
eruption  in  1854  and  in  1870.  Pacific  CoaM  Pilot  U.  S.  G.  S.,  1899.  J.  C.  Fre- 
mont in  his  journal  under  date  November  13,  1843,  writes  as  follows:  "At  this 
time  two  of  the  great  snowy  cones,  >rount  Eegnier  and  St.  Helens  were  in  action. 
On  the  23  of  the  preceding  November,  St.  Helens  had  scattered  its  ashes,  like  a 
light  fall  of  snow  over  the  Dalles  of  the  Columbia,  50  miles  distant."  The  Ex- 
ploring Expedition.    D.  Appleton  tC  Co.,  IS.'/G. 


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292  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

In  general,  geographers  consider  Lassen  Peak  as  marking  approxi- 
mately the  southern  end  of  the  Cascade  Eange,  and  as  being  the  last  of 
that  series  of  great  volcanic  cones  of  which  Rainier,  Adams,  Hood, 
Three  Sisters,  Mazama,  Pit  and  Shasta  are  familiar  examples.  To  the 
southeast  of  Lassen  the  topographic  gap  of  the  Feather  Eiver  separates 
the  Cascade  Eange  from  its  correlative,  the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  ex- 
tends four  hundred  miles  farther  to  Tehachapi  Pass,  but  whose  lofty 
peaks  owe  their  height  primarily  to  uplift  rather  than  to  volcanic  up- 
building. 

The  southern  fifty  miles  of  the  Cascade  Eange  extending  north- 
westerly toward  Shasta  from  the  North  Fork  of  the  Feather  Eiver  is  a 
great  volcanic  ridge,  about  twenty-five  miles  wide.  This  ridge  is  studded 
with  numerous  minor  volcanic  cones  culminating  in  Lassen,  the  domi- 
nating peak,  which  is  guarded  by  a  number  of  other  major  cones  rising 
to  heights  varying  from  seven  thousand  to  nine  thousand  feet  above  the 
sea.  Past  volcanic  phenomena  of  the  Lassen  Peak  region  in  recent 
geologic  time  have  been  made  familiar  to  readers  through  J.  S.  Diller's 
well-known  report,-  which  describes  with  considerable  detail  the  Cinder 
Cone,  ten  miles  northeasterly  from  the  main  peak,  from  the  base  of 
which  the  latest  lava  flow  issued.  Until  the  present  outbreak,  despite 
our  knowledge  of  the  Cinder  Cone  lava  flows,  it  has  been  tacitly  assumed 
in  physiographic  literature  that  Lassen  Peak  belonged  to  the  class  of 
extinct  volcanoes,  although  the  following  statement  by  Diller  in  the 
folio  just  quoted  shows  clearly  that  twenty  years  ago  he  did  not  consider 
the  volcano  entirely  extinct. 

The  latest  volcanic  eruptiou  iu  the  Lassen  Peak  district,  and  possibly  the 
latest  in  the  United  States  south  of  Alaska,  occured  at  the  Cinder  Cone  about  two 
hundred  years  ago.  Some  of  the  trees  killed  at  the  time  are  still  standing.  The 
lava,  although  very  viscous,  spread  more  than  a  mile  from  the  vent  and  formed 
a  huge  tabular  pile  which  extends  across  a  little  valley.  The  lava  dam  thus 
formed  developed  Snag  Lake,  which  contained  stumps  of  some  of  the  trees 
drowned  at  the  time  the  lake  originated. 

That  volcanic  activity  is  not  yet  extinct  in  the  Lassen  Peak  district  is  shown 
by  the  presence  of  numerous  solfataras  and  hot  springs.  At  Bumpass's  Hell, 
near  the  southern  base  of  the  peak,  there  are  boiling  mud  pools  and  vigorous, 
solfataric  action.  Near  by,  at  the  head  of  Mill  Creek,  the  sulphur  deposited  by 
such  action  is  so  abundant  that  attempts  have  been  made  to  mine  it.  Similar 
phenomena  occur  in  Hot  Springs  Valley  and  at  Lake  Tartarus  and  the  Geyser, 
near  Willow  Lake.  The  Geyser  is  much  less  vigorous  than  formerly,  and  now 
the  column  of  water  rises  scarcely  a  foot  above  its  pool. 

Previous  to  the  present  activit}^  of  Lassen  Peak  there  had  been 
numerous  indefinite  reports  of  eruptions  witnessed  by  the  Indians  in  that 
vicinity  shortly  before  the  coming  of  the  white  settlers.  The  most  defi- 
nite of  these  reports  is  given  in  a  recent  letter  from  Dr.  J.  W.  Hudson, 
of  IJkiah,  California. 

2  Lassen  Peak  Folio.  T'.  .'^.  Geol.  Survey,  1894. 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK  293 

I  was  in  that  region  in  1904  collecting  for  Field  Museum  of  Natural  History, 
Chicago,  department  anthropology,  and  heard  much  of  Lassen  Butte.  An  old 
Indian  told  me  that  when  a  child  and  living  some  sixteen  miles  northwest  of 
Cinder  Cone,  there  came  an  earthquake  at  Lassen  one  summer  day.  The  sun 
arose,  but  gradually  faded  to  the  darkest  night  and  ashes  came  down  like  a 
heavy  snowfall.  Its  weight  finally  broke  in  the  bark  houses  and  the  natives 
rushed  out  into  the  darkness.  The  boy  was  taken  by  a  grandmother  to  a  hollow 
pine  log  where  they  remained  till  nearly  famished.  When  the  sun  reappeared  he  was 
carried  many  miles  before  drinkable  water  was  found.  I  presumed  at  that  time 
my  informant  was  near  seventy  years  old  and  about  six  on  the  above  occasion, 
thus  approximating  the  date  1850  for  this  eruption.  In  many  localities  along 
the  Pit  river  water  shed  I  heard  similar  reports  amongst  the  aged  Indians.  The 
name  of  this  volcano  in  Palainihan  tongue  is  "  Am  blii'-kai  "  "  Mountain 
ripped  apart." 

The  region  about  Lassen  Peak  for  many  miles  is  very  rugged,  the 
few  valleys  suitable  for  agriculture  lying  at  an  elevation  of  from  5,000 
to  7,000  feet.  Naturally  it  is  sparsely  settled,  and  this  year,  on  the 
date  of  the  first  eruption,  the  snow  was  still  very  deep,  obscuring  all 
roads  and  trails  down  to  the  six-thousand-foot  level.  On  account  of  the 
unusually  late  season,  the  summer  influx  of  cattlemen,  lumbermen  and 
campers  had  not  yet  begun ;  probably  the  nearest  occupied  house  was  at 
least  eight  miles  distant  from  the  mountain  top. 

Prompt  investigation  of  the  first  eruption  is  due  to  the  fortunate 
fact  that  the  mountain  is  included  in  the  Lassen  Peak  National  Forest 
and  that  the  United  States  Forest  Service^  had  built  a  fire  look-out  sta- 
tion on  the  topmost  crag  of  Lassen  Peak  itself.  The  summer  head- 
quarters of  the  forest  supervisor,  Mr.  W.  J.  Rushing,  are  in  Battle  Creek 
Meadows,  near  Mineral  postoffice,  a  little  more  than  ten  miles  in  an  air 
line  from  the  top  of  the  mountain.  The  look-out  house  on  Lassen  and 
the  other  stations  also  are  connected  with  the  supervisor's  headquarters 
by  the  government  telephone  lines  which  extend  to  the  town  of  Red  Bluff, 
nearly  fifty  miles  to  the  westward,  giving  direct  communication  with 
San  Francisco.  When  the  eruptions  began  the  fire  look-out  station  on 
Lassen  had  not  yet  been  occupied  for  the  summer  season  of  1914,  but  it 
was  the  property  of  the  Forest  Service  and  a  station  of  importance.  It 
uill  be  seen  then  that  the  interests  and  resources  of  the  Forestry  Service 
as  indicated  above  were  such  that  reports  of  volcanic  activity  on  Lassen 
were  investigated  at  once  and  definite  records  kept  of  the  reports  brought 
in  to  headquarters. 

The  following  extracts  are  from  the  report  of  Forest  Supervisor  W. 
J.  Rushing  to  the  District  Forester  at  San  Francisco,  made  June  9. 

Such   wild   stories  are   being   circulated   concerning   Mt.   Lassen   that   I   am 

3  The  writer  wishes  to  express  his  appreciation  of  the  assistance  and  cour- 
tesies extended  him  in  connection  with  his  field  work  not  only  by  District  Forester 
DuBois,  of  San  Francisco,  and  Supervisor  Eushing,  of  Mineral,  but  also  by  var- 
ious members  of  the  staff  in  each  place. 


294  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

sending  you  the  results  of  our  observations  to  date.  Saturday,  May  30,  the  first 
outbreak  occurred  at  5  p.m.  This  was  witnessed  by  Bert  McKenzie,  of  Chester, 
who  was  looking  directly  at  it  when  it  occurred.  Eanger  Harvey  Abbey  investi- 
gated it  on  Sunday,  May  31,  finding  a  hole  25x40  feet  in  size  and  of  unknown 
depth.  Sand,  rocks  as  large  as  a  sack  of  flour,  and  mud  had  been  ejected.  The 
heavier  material  was  thrown  over  an  area  three  hundred  feet  across,  while  the 
ash,  or  cement-like  material,  was  scattered  over  an  area  one  quarter  mile  across. 
...  No  molten  material  was  thrown  out  at  all.  8:05  a.m.,  June  1,  a  second 
outburst  occurred,  throwing  out  large  quantities  of  the  same  material.  Some 
boulders  weighing  all  of  a  ton  were  thrown  out.  The  vent  was  enlarged  to 
60  X  275  feet.  .  .  .  Boerker,  Abbey,  and  Macomber  went  up  June  4,  remained 
on  top  at  the  lookout  house  over  night,  and  came  back  June  5. 

June  8,  heavier  volumes  of  steam  were  noted,  and  at  night  apparently 
another  eruption  took  place,  throwing  out  more  ashes  or  fine  material,  which 
could  be  seen  on  the  new  snow. 

Heavy  volumes  of  steam  are  coming  out  of  the  vent  today.  We  have 
watched  it  carefully  and  at  no  time  have  we  been  able  to  see  any  flame  or  indi- 
cation of  fire.  .  .  .  The  vent  is  about  one  quarter  mile  from  the  fire  lookout 
house,  and  if  it  continues  eastward,  as  it  has  so  far,  it  will  finally  break  out  on 
the  east  side. 

Mr.  Ben  Macomber,  one  of  the  party  mentioned  in  the  report  above 
as  spending  the  night  on  the  mountain  top,  has  given  the  following 
description  of  the  crater  as  it  was  after  the  early  eruptions: 

When  I  saw  the  new  crater  on  Lassen  on  June  4  and  5,  the  vent,  by  an 
engineer's  tape,  measured  275  feet  long.  It  was  then  in  one  of  the  pauses  be-, 
tween  the  heavy  explosions.  Thick  volumes  of  steam,  laden  with  sulphur  smoke, 
were  rising,  and  cracks  were  appearing  in  the  ground.  From  three  different 
places  on  the  edge  I  looked  down  into  the  crater.  Sixty  or  seventy  feet  down  a 
pile  of  rocks  was  visible  in  the  center  of  the  vent,  but  at  either  end  was  a  huge 
dark  hole  from  which  the  steam  clouds  poured.  The  walls  were  absolutely  per- 
pendicular, and  around  the  top  were  hung  with  huge  icicles  formed  by  the  con- 
densation of  steam  in  the  chill  air  of  the  peak. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  crater  everything  was  buried  beneath  a  heavy  fall  of 
light  gray  ash,  into  which  we  sank  over  our  boot-tops.  So  light  was  this  rock 
powder  that  it  flew  into  the  air  at  every  step.  On  the  east  side  the  same  material 
seemed  to  have  been  thrown  out  in  the  form  of  mud  and  lay  frozen  hard  as  rock. 
What  little  snow  remained  near  the  crater  was  buried  under  a  layer  of  stones  and 
boulders.     (San  Francisco  Chronicle,  June  28.) 

The  eruption  of  June  14  was  heavier  than  any  which  had  preceded 
it,  and  the  only  serious  injuries  suffered  by  visitors  during  the  six 
months  covered  by  this  article,  occurred  during  the  outburst  beginning 
at  9  :45  a.m.  Extracts  from  a  letter  from  Mr.  B.  F.  Loomis  written 
a  month  after  the  events  gives  a  brief  summary  of  the  experiences  of 
the  party  that  was  caught  by  this  eruption,  as  told  to  him  by  the  differ- 
ent members. 

Mr.  Phelp's  party  had  just  reached  the  rim  of  the  old  crater  and  sat  down 
to  rest  a  short  time,  watching  the  smoke  from  the  crater,  when  the  eruption  began. 
Without  any  warning  or  explosion  that  could  be  heard,  a  huge  column  of  black 
smoke  shot  upward  with  a  roar,  such  as  would  be  caused  by  a  rushing  mighty 
wind,  and  in   an  instant  the  air  was  filled  with  smoke,  ashes  and  flying  rocks 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK 


295 


Fii;.  li.  Ti  1;  lOitLi-nuN-  ov  June  14,  1914.  This  series,  showing  four  stages  in 
the  eruption  beginning  at  9  :45  a.  m.,  was  obtained  by  Mr.  B.  F.  Loomis,  of  Viola, 
from  a  point  about  six  miles  to  the  northwest  at  an  elevation  of  nearly  5,000  feet. 
The  time  interval  represented  by  the  four  views  of  the  plate  is  aliout  fifteen  minutes. 


296  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

from  the  ei-ater.  They  all  ran  for  their  lives.  Mr.  Phelps  hid  uuder  an  over- 
hanging rock,  ^-hich  sheltered  him  from  the  rocks  which  brushed  past  him  as 
they  fell.  Lance  Graham  was  a  few  feet  away  and  was  struck  by  a  flying  rock, 
which  cut  a  great  gash  in  his  shoulder,  piercing  the  thoracic  cavity,  and  broke 
his  collarbone.  He  was  left  on  the  mountain  for  dead  for  a  time,  but  was  after- 
ward removed  with  great  difficulty,  and  is  now  recovered.  Another  of  their 
party  ran  down  the  mountain  and,  coming  to  a  snowdrift,  slid  down  the  mountain 
like  a  shot.  The  cloud  of  smoke  kept  pace  with  him,  and  when  lie  reached  the 
bottom  of  the  snowdrift  he  found  a  clump  of  bushes  and,  diving  into  it,  buried 
his  face  in  the  snow  to  keep  out  the  blinding  smoke  and  ashes.  The  smoke  is 
described  as  causing  the  blackest  darkness,  black  as  the  darkest  night. 

The  six  photographs  taken  of  this  eruption  by  Mr.  Loomis  from  a 
point  at  an  elevation  of  about  5,000  feet  and  nearly  six  miles  to  the 
northwest  of  Lassen  Peak  are  among  the  best  that  have  been  taken. 
The  view  reproduced  in  figure  2  is  number  three  of  the  series  and  shows 
the  steam  and  ash  at  about  one  half  the  height  to  which  they  were  pro- 
jected some  ten  or  fifteen  minutes  later. 

The  writer's  first  trip  to  the  mountain  since  the  eruptions  began 
was  made  by  the  Southern  Pacific  railroad  to  Red  Bluff,  thence  by  stage 
to  Morgan  Springs^,  a  resort  nine  miles  southerly  in  an  air  line  from 
the  peak  and  located  in  a  valley  nearly  5,000  feet  above  the  sea.  The 
week  from  June  21  to  28  during  which  no  eruption  occurred  was  spent 
on  the  mountain  or  at  its  base.  Some  of  the  hot  springs  and  solfataras 
at  the  base  of  Lassen  Peak  were  visited  on  the  twenty-first  and  found  to 
exhibit  no  unusual  activity  (see  Figs.  7  and  8).  From  June  23  to  25, 
rainstorms,  with  snow  on  the  higher  levels,  prevented  a  visit  to  the 
crater,  with  any  possibility  of  photographic  work.  On  the  twenty-sixth, 
and  the  twenty-eighth,  the  sky  was  clear,  and  the  new  crater  was  visited 
and  photographed  from  various  points  of  view.  Both  trips  were  made 
from  the  hotel  at  Morgan  as  a  base.  The  ride  on  horseback  to  the  foot 
of  the  volcanic  cone  proper  at  that  time  took  almost  four  hours,  the 
latter  half  being  over  snow  from  ten  to  twenty  feet  deep.  After  leav- 
ing the  horses  the  climb  to  the  to])  can  be  made  in  less  than  an  hour. 
Tlie  new  crater  has  frequently  been  described  as  being  located  on  the 
south  slope  of  the  north  peak;  this  peak,  however,  is  merely  a  fragment 
of  the  northern  portion  of  tlie  walls  of  the  ancient  crater.  The  rela- 
tions of  the  new  opening  to  the  old  volcano  are  better  appreciated  by 
describing  it  as  an  opening  not  in  the  center,  but  on  the  north  side  of 
the  much  eroded  bowl  of  the  crater.  The  central  depression  of  the  old 
crater  is  probably  over  three  liundred  feet  below  the  higher  points  of 
the  old  rim.  The  wall  of  the  old  crater  has  been  deeply  breached  both 
on  the  east  and  on  ilie  west,  and  in  summer  the  melting  snow  in  the 
depression  now  drains  westward,  although  there  is  not  enough  surface 
water  to  make  any  regiilar  channel.  Volcanic  dust  or  "ash"  from  the 
different  eruptions  has  been  reported  as  falling  from  ten  to  twenty 
miles  from  the  peak,  the  amonnl  and  direction  varying  witli  the  wind. 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK 


297 


The  limit  of  the  heavy  fall  of  ash  not  wind-borne  was  quite  definitely 
marked  on  June  26  and  was  jarobably  within  a  circle  of  less  than  a 
mile.  It  had  not,  however,  a  uniform  border.  In  making  the  ascent 
on  that  day,  instead  of  the  regular  trail  a  more  easterly  route  was  taken, 
leading  wp  the  southeasterly  ridge  directly  to  the  fire  lookout  station. 
This  ridge,  which  lies  in  the  general  direction  of  the  longitudinal  open- 
ing of  the  crater  itself,  was  found  to  be  much  more  heavily  covered 
with  ash  than  the  regular  trail.  While  the  main  outbursts  were  usually 
directly  upward  in  the  eruption  described,  irregular  streaks  of  ash  such 
as  the  one  just  noted  prove  that  there  were  minor  outshoots  of  volcanic 
dust  in  various  directions.  Exaggerated  reports  of  the  distance  to 
which  stones  were  thrown  seem  to  have  been  based  upon  their  being 


Fig.  3.     The  Nuktiiwesteiu.y  E.nd  uf  the  Ceater  ox  .June  28.     VV^henever  the  steam 
was  blown  aside,  a  crack  was  visible  extending  in  the  line  of  steam  jets. 


found  on  the  outer  slopes  of  the  old  crater  resting  upon  the  surface  of 
the  snow,  but  the  fact  that  stones  are  constantly  being  dislodged  from 
the  cliffs  by  ordinary  weathering  processes  and  are  rolling  down  the 
mountain  side  shows  the  need  of  additional  criteria.  To  avoid  mis- 
taking such  stones  for  those 'thrown  through  the  air  by  eruption,  care- 
ful search  was  made  on  level  patches  of  the  old  snow  so  located  that  it 
was  impossible  for  stones  to  roll  down  upon  them.  Wherever  such  level 
surfaces  were  found  there  was  no  evidence  at  that  time  of  ejected 
stones  falling  at  a  much  greater  distance  than  to  the  lookout  house, 
certainly  at  no  point  over  a  half  mile  from  the  crater. 

In  climbing  Lassen  Peak  from  the  southeast  up  to  the  crag  upon 
which  the  Forest  Service  station  is  built  the  slope  is  so  steep  and  rugged 
that  the  final  ascent  is  made  without  any  glimpse  of  what  is  aliead.  As 
the  last  rocks  are  scaled  and  one  stands  on  the  wind-swept  crag  by  the 
fragments  of  the  little  frame  buildinji  once  bound  down  to  the  rocks  bv 


298  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

wire  cables  there  suddenly  yawns  below  the  climber  the  bowl  of  the 
ancient  crater,  and  he  looks  directly  into  the  irregular  naked  chasm  of  the 
new  vent  torn  in  the  opposite  slope  (Fig.  3).  It  is  impossible  for  a  cam- 
era with  its  narrow  field  of  view  to  give  correct  impressions  of  the  con- 
ditions of  the  mountain  top.  The  observer  standing  upon  that  solitary, 
sharp,  rocky  pinnacle,  although  he  narrows  his  vision  to  the  new  crater 
steaming  below,  is  conscious  of  the  steep  slopes  behind  him  and  he  also 
sees  subconsciously  the  surrounding  ragged  edge  of  the  bowl  of  the 
ancient  crater. 

Descending  into  the  irregular  basin,  the  new  vent  was  photographed 
at  closer  range  from  various  directions.  No  appreciable  change  oc- 
curred between  June  26  and  June  28,  except  the  rapid  disappearance 
of  the  new  snow  as  a  result  of  the  warmer  weather.  The  northwesterly 
end  of  the  new  crater  (Fig.  2)  was  of  most  interest  because  of  escaping 
steam.  On  close  approach,  the  sulphur  fumes  became  oppressive  and 
yellow,  sulphur  deposits  near  the  vents  were  distinctly  noticeable.  The 
crater  was  apparently  being  extended  longitudinally  along  cracks  at 
either  end.  The  northern  wall  showed  also  a  transverse  crack  running 
back  from  the  vent  more  than  a  hundred  feet.  The  depth  of  the  crater 
did  not  seem  to  be  over  eighty  feet,  but  the  continually  caving  sides  sug- 
gested that  the  present  bottom  is  but  piled  up  debris.  Xo  suggestion 
could  be  obtained  of  the  depth  of  the  holes  from  which  steam  was 
escaping.  By  pacing  a  line  parallel  to  the  side  and  some  fifty  feet 
distant  the  length  of  the  crater  on  June  28  was  estimated  at  somewhat 
more  than  four  hundred  feet.  This  estimate  is  less  than  that  given  by 
some  observers,  but  agrees  closely  with  that  made  by  Mr.  Diller  on 
June  20. 

During  the  last  week  in  July  the  writer  again  spent  several  days  at 
the  base  of  Lassen,  this  time  approaching  the  mountain  by  the  Susan- 
ville  auto  road  which  terminates  at  Drakesbad.  a  resort  in  Hot  Springs 
Valley  at  the  southeastern  base  of  the  peak.  Unfortunately,  the  time 
of  the  second  visit  proved  to  be  a  period  of  quiescence,  as  had  the  first. 
In  the  month  since  the  previous  visit  thirteen  eruptions  had  taken 
place,  the  one  on  July  18  being  reported  by  the  Forest  Service  as  "by 
far  the  most  violent  eruption  to  date.  Ash,  steam,  etc.,  arose  to  a 
height  of  11,000  feet.  Duration  practically  the  entire  morning." 
iS'ewspaper  accounts  of  this  eruption  stated  that  the  crater  had  been 
greatly  enlarged  yet  the  writer's  photographs  of  July  25  compared  with 
those  taken  June  26,  with  the  same  camera  and  from  the  same  view- 
point were  strikingly  similar  at  first  glance.  Careful  comparison  in- 
dicated a  lengthening  of  the  crater  of  from  forty  to  sixty  feet  and  a  pro- 
portionate widening,  but  the  general  shape  and  appearance  were  similar. 
The  linear  extension  of  the  crater  was  evidently  along  the  same  crack 
marked  by  the  steam  jets  in  the  June  photograph  (Fig.  3),  and  a  sharp 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK 


299 


^.*^ 


Fig.  4.  Gradual  Enlargement  of  the  First  Crater  Developed  on  Lassen  1'eak 
During  the  Eruptions  of  1914.  (a)  (above)  the  new  crater  ou  June  4,  1914. 
Photograph  by   R.  H.  Boerker.      (Below)    (/))    the  crater  on  .July  25,   1914. 

notch  in  the  northern  end  suggested  tliat  tlie  movement  was  likely  to 
continue. 

The  winter's  snow  had  largely  disappeared,  although  the  trail  still 
passed  over  deep  snow  banks  for  nearly  a  mile  in  crossing  the  plateau- 
like shoulder  at  the  south  base  of  the  peak  proper.  Xear  the  top  of  the 
mountain  snow  was  to  be  found  only  in  patches  and  beneath  the  cover- 
ing of  ashes.  Such  areas  moist  from  the  melting  snow,  from  a  distance 
appeared  almost  black  in  comparison  with  the  light  gray  of  the  dry 
dust  found  over  the  greater  part  of  the  mountain.  This  dust  was  so 
fine  that  it  was  easily  moved  by  the  wind.  At  times  a  strong  gust 
would  send  immense  clouds  into  the  air,  giving  the  appearance  of  an 


300  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

eruption  to  casual  observers  at  a  distance.  AVith  the  intense  sunshine 
of  a  July  day  at  that  elevation  and  with  the  dry  air  marked  differences 
in  temperature  occurred  between  sunlight  and  shadow  and  between  wet 
and  dry  areas.  Under  these  circumstances  strong  whirlwinds  developed 
at  intervals  which  sent  the  dust  high  into  the  air  in  columns  strongly 
resembling  steam  jets.  In  fact,  the  writer  when  within  two  miles  of 
the  peak  on  July  25  for  a  time  mistook  them  for  new  steam  vents,  all 
the  more  readily  since  they  were  situated  along  the  line  of  reported  ex- 
tensions of  the  crater.  Actual  inspection  of  the  area  showed  the  real 
character  of  the  columns  and  also  that  no  new  vents  had  been  formed 
in  that  locality.  Probably  several  of  the  incorrect  reports  of  eruptions 
and  of  new  craters  came  from  the  same  failure  to  distinguish  wind- 
formed  dust  clouds  from  steam  explosions. 

During  the  month  of  August  there  were  but  eight  eruptions,  fewer 
than  either  of  the  preceding  months,  and  seven  of  the  eight,  all  quite 
severe  occurred  August  19-23,  inclusive,  two  of  them  throwing  ash 
columns  to  a  height  of  over  10,000  feet.  The  record  for  September 
shows  seventeen  eruptions,  the  largest  number  for  any  of  the  six  months 
covered  by  the  tabular  list.  During  the  month  there  was  a  continuous 
enlargement  of  the  vent  within  the  basin  of  the  old  crater  and  there 
were  also  new  vents  opened  (see  Fig.  4)  on  the  outer  slopes  of  the  m.ain 
cone.  These  vents  are  clearly  identified  from  photographs  taken  by 
Mr.  Jack  Eobertson  of  Oakland  as  being  in  line  with  the  main  axis  of 
the  first  opening.  Mr.  Eobertson  had  an  interesting  experience.  He 
was  at  Di-akesbad  on  the  evening  of  September  19  when  he  heard  a 
"  tremendous  explosion "  during  the  night.  The  next  morning  he 
climbed  the  mountain  and  had  the  good  fortune  to  watch  at  close  range 
the  eruption  beginning  at  11:30  a.m.  (eruption  no.  46)  without  re- 
ceiving any  serious  injury.  The  crater  was  belching  smoke  at  short 
intervals  every  few  minutes  and  while  he  was  quite  near,  steam  and 
ashes  poured  out  from  its  entire  length.  The  ashes  were  so  hot  that 
they  burned  his  feet  as  he  walked  over  them.  He  reports  having  heard 
the  roar  and  rumble  of  the  explosions,  but  was  not  conscious  of  any 
apparent  quaking  of  the  ground. 

The  most  marked  changes  in  the  new  ci'ater  since  the  middle  of 
June  occurred  during  the  month  of  September.  The  inner  vent  is  re- 
ported to  have  grown  to  900  feet  in  length  and  photographs  taken  early 
in  October  show  that  the  area  of  the  opening  had  become  fully  fi\(' 
times  its  area  at  the  end  of  June.  The  severity  of  the  September 
eruptions  is  also  attested  by  the  fact  the  lookout  house  (Fig.  5 
and  6)  was  completely  demolished  on  the  twenty-ninth,  no  part  of 
the  walls  being  left  standing.  During  the  same  eruption  the  forest 
lookout  on  Turner  Mountain  distinctly  saw  luminous  bodies  thrown 
out  which  appeared  to  him  to  ho  red-hot  stones.     This  report  is  con- 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK 


301 


Fig.  5.  The  Fikk  Luokuut  Station  of  thk  U.  S.  Fokest  Service  on  June  26, 
1914.  The  holes  in  the  roof  were  probably  made  during  the  eruption  of  June  14. 
The  house  has  been  entirely  destroyed  by  later  eruptions. 

firmed  by  other  observers,  some  of  whom  declare  they  saw  flames.  So 
far  as  known  to  the  writer,  this  is  the  only  reliable  observation  during 
these  eruptions  which  may  possibly  be  interpreted  as  indicating  that 
there  has  ever  been  an  apj^roach  to  the  temperature  of  molten  lava. 
The  coming  of  winter  with  frequent  snowstorins  at  that  elevation  has 
prevented  any  search  for  ejected  rocks  bearing  any  evidence  of  recent 
subjection  to  great  heat,  and  consequently  the  character  of  the  luminous 
bodies  remains  undetermined. 

The  maximum  severity  for  the  entire  period  apijarenily  occurred  in 
September,  but  this  is  uncertain,  since  the  record  for  October  and  No- 


FiG.  G.     The   Lookout   Station   as    Seen   ox   October   7. 


30  2  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

vember  is  doubtless  far  from  complete — the  region  extending  from  15  to 
20  miles  around  tlie  mountain  being  almost  if  not  entirel}'  deserted 
by  the  last  of  October.  The  resort  at  Drakesbad  at  the  southeastern 
base  of  the  mountain  closed  for  the  season  on  September  21  and  the 
headquarters  of  the  forest  service  were  removed  to  Eed  Bluff  on  October 
12.  The  houses  on  the  stock  ranches  in  the  vicinity  are  also  deserted 
during  the  winter  and  the  few  wagon  roads  are  blocked  by  deep  snow 
until  late  in  spring.  Under  the  conditions  indicated,  the  fact  that 
October  and  November  together  are  credited  witli  but  sixteen  recorded 
eruptions  furnishes  no  basis  for  any  inference  that  volcanic  activity  on 
Lassen  Peak  is  decreasing.  At  the  date  of  reading  proof  the  activity 
continues.  A  dispatch  published  in  the  San  Francisco  Chronicle,  Jan- 
uary 23,  1915,  describes  an  eruption  from  a  new  crater  on  the  east  as 
equal  to  any  which  have  gone  before.  The  dispatch  adds  that  no  one 
has  visited  the  volcano's  summit  for  over  two  months. 

An  interesting  suggestion  concerning  the  November  record  comes  in 
a  private  letter  from  Mr.  Rushing.  The  eruptions  from  the  summit 
which  were  observed  during  November  were  all  ranked  as  medium  in 
severity.  The  suggestion  is  that  this  may  be  explained  by  the  fact  that 
a  new  vent  has  been  opened  at  a  much  lower  level.  The  eruption  of 
November  18  as  seen  by  two  observers  at  stations  situated  north  of  west 
from  Lassen  came  from  a  point  on  the  north  slope  of  the  mountain 
about  a  mile  from  the  top  and  presumably  near  timber  line.  A  com- 
parison of  distant  observations  from  the  north  and  from  the  south  may 
soon  test  the  correctness  of  this  supposition. 

Some  further  idea  of  the  magnitude  of  the  eruptions  of  Lassen 
Peak  may  be  gained  from  the  record  of  distant  observers.  A  letter 
from  Professor  Charles  F.  Shaw,  who  was  at  Amadee  about  65  miles 
eastward  from  Lassen  Peak  on  October  23.  contains  particularly  inter- 
esting observations.  The  eruption  began  at  5  :40  r.:M.  The  mountain 
showed  plainly  over  the  tops  of  the  nearer  hills  and  the  smoke  of  the 
eruption  was  clearly  sihouetted  against  the  western  sky,  extending 
directly  upward  from  the  peak. 

The  smoke  rolled  up  until  practically  the  entire  height  [12,000  ft.;  see  list 
of  eruptions]  was  reached  before  any  change  in  form  occurred,  when  just  below 
the  top  of  the  column  there  was  a  tendency  to  stratification  and  a  layer  extended 
out  toward  the  south  and  toward  the  north.  When  this  appeared,  the  smoke 
column  began  to  lean  toward  the  north  and  from  our  point  of  vision,  apparently 
toward  the  northeast  and  with  this  inclination  of  the  column,  distortion  took 
place,  the  upper  part  spreading  out  into  streamers.  As  soon  as  the  inclination 
of  the  smoke  column  became  very  plain,  we  could  readily  distinguish  indications 
of  falling  material.  The  lower  two  thirds  of  the  column  seemed  to  be  dropping 
some  material  that  was  falling  in  a  slightly  oblique  line,  the  obliqueness  pointing 
back  toward  the  mountain  peak.  As  the  eruption  continued  and  the  smoke 
column  blew  out  more  toward  the  north,  the  streaked  condition  indicating  falling 
material  became  more  and  more  apparent,  but  as  the  light  was  failing  it  became 
rather  hard  to  distinguish  the  exact  outlines  of  the  lower  portion  of  the  column. 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK 


)03 


Fiii.   7.   SouPA.N     Si'KiNGS     Southwest    of    Lassex    Peak. 

The  falling  matter  must  have  been  the  stones  and  coarser  material 
in  distinction  from  the  fine  ash  forming  the  top  of  the  column  of 
smoke.  Professor  Shaw's  observation  is  the  only  one  received  by  the 
writer  that  indicates  the  height  to  which  the  heavier  fragments  were 
thrown.  "  Two  thirds  "  of  the  column  would  indicate  a  height  of  8,000 
feet. 

There  seems  to  be  entire  agreement  by  all  the  competent  observers 
who  were  fortunately  situated  that  in  none  of  the  eruptions  has  there 
been  any  molten  lava  emitted.  Sunset  glow  upon  the  steam  clouds  has 
most  probably  accounted  for  some  of  the  ''flames"  reported  to  the 
newspapers.  Samples  of  the  ash  were  submitted  to  Professoi'  A.  S. 
Eakle,  of  the  Mineralogy  Department  of  the  University  of  California, 
and  his  report  follows. 


Fig.   .s.     Tartaru.s   Lake    (Roiling   Lake  i    i^    ii'.i    Spuing   Valley. 


304  THE  POPULAR  SCIENCE  MONTHLY 

Au  exair.ination  of  the  dust  from  the  volcanic  eruption  of  Mt.  Lassen 
shows  it  to  be  made  up  of  fine  dust  and  broken  fragments  of  an  acid  volcanic 
rock  which  has  been  shattered  to  pieces  by  a  violent  explosion.  Under  the  micro- 
scope there  are  to  be  seen  many  small  angular  fragments  of  quartz,  pieces  of 
triclinic  feldspar  showing  twinning  structure,  perhaps  oligoclase  in  compo- 
sition frayed  sections  of  brown  biotite  and  grains  of  magnetite.  The  original 
rock  could  not  have  been  more  basic  than  a  dacite  and  the  presence  of  so  much 
quartz  rather  suggests  a  rhyolite.  The  dust  is  not  an  ash  in  the  sense  of  being 
a  fine  residual  product  of  a  cinder  and  there  is  no  evidence  of  its  having  come 
from  the  cooling  of  a  molten  mass.  The  original  rock  seems  from  the  appearance 
of  the  largest  fragments  to  have  been  a  volcanic  tuff  formed  at  some  previous 
activity  of  the  volcano,  and  the  late  eruption  has  simply  blown  this  tuff  to  dust. 

The  eruptions  of  Mt.  Lassen  while  volcanic  in  their  general  classification 
are  in  the  same, category  as  geyser  eruptions  the  difference  existing  mainly  in  the 
fact  that  the  explosions  of  pent-up  steam  are  so  violent  as  to  shatter  and  throw 
rock  debris  in  the  form  of  boulders  and  dust.  It  is  a  question  whether  the  ex- 
plosions are  very  deep  seated. 

Some  of  the  mud  from  the  locality  is  of  the  same  nature  as  the  dust  and 
probably  formed  from  it. 

Xiinierous  inquiries  have  come  to  the  writer  as  to  whether  the  erup- 
tions of  Lassen  Peak  are  to  he  considered  as  tru]_y  volcanic,  and  Pro- 
fessor Eakle  indirectly  raises  the  same  point.  This  is  naturally  a  ques- 
tion of  definition  merely.  A  volcano  is  primarily  an  opening  in  the 
ground  from  which  the  internal  forces  of  the  earth  project  various 
^materials,  molten  rock  being  an  essential  product  at  some  period  in  the 
history  of  the  volcano. 

Many  of  the  type  examples  of  volcanic  eruptions  given  in  standard 
college  text-books  are,  however,  of  the  explosive  type,  in  which  no  molten 
lava  is  ejected.  The  noted  eruption  of  Bandai-San  in  Japan,  on  .luly 
15,  1888,  is  an  instance.  This  old  volcanic  cone,  nearly  180  miles  from 
Yokohama,  had  been  without  sign  of  life  for  a  thousand  years  of  re- 
corded history,  yet  with  only  a  iew  minutes  of  warning  consisting  of 
rumblings  and  moderate  earthquake  shocks  the  entire  top  of  the  moun- 
tain was  blown  away  in  some  fifteen  to  twenty  explosions  lasting  less 
than  a  half  hour.  There  was  no  fresh  lava  or  pumice  thrown  out.  Ash 
and  steam  were  projected  upward  about  4,000  feet,  but  the  main  force 
of  the  explosion  was  nearly  horizontal,  carrying  destruction  in  a  north- 
erly direction  for  about  four  miles.  The  quantity  of  material  blown 
away  has  been  estimated  at  one  third  of  a  cubic  mile. 

In  the  case  of  Lassen  Peak  the  period  of  quiescence  had  jjrobably 
been  greater  than  a  thousand  years,  judging  from  the  effect  of  erosion 
on  the  old  cone.  The  force  of  the  steam  explosions  to  date  has  been 
distributed  through  six  months,  yet  tlic  height  of  the  ash-laden  column 
has  several  times  reached  two  miles  above  the  mountains.  Had  the 
steam  been  confined  more  effective! v  in  Lassen  and  the  force,  instead 


VOLCANIC  ACTIVITY  OF  LASSEN  PEAK  305 

of  being  gradual!}-  Jiberated  during  the  six  montlis,  l)ecu  freed  during  a 
few  minutes,  the  results  would  undoubtedly  have  been  comparable  to 
those  at  Bandai-San.  The  point,  however,  is  that  the  difference  is 
qualitative  merely  and  that  the  nature  and  magnitude  of  the  eruptions 
of  Lassen  Peak  fully  justify  classing  them  as  volcanic. 

A  study  of  the  tabular  suuniiary  oT  the  eruptions  gives  little  u|)on 
which  to  base  an  opinion  as  to  whelhcj'  the  future  will  bring  a  fi'csh 
lava  flow  or  whether  there  is  being  formed  a  new  solfataric  l)asiu.  The 
longest  period  of  quiescence  was  from  July  IS  to  August  10,  twenty- 
three  days.  The  eruptions  in  November,  so  far  as  oltservations  have 
been  made,  do  not  differ  materially  from  those  in  June.  The  fact  that 
Soupan  Hot  Springs,  Morgan  Hot  Springs  and  those  in  Hot  Springs 
Valley  are  situated  in  valleys  at  so  much  lower  levels  than  the  new 
crater,  and  are  apparently  unconnected  with  Lassen,  suggests  the  idea 
that  the  recent  activity  was  due  to  a  column  of  lava  \\'orking  its  way 
ujiward  along  the  core  of  the  main  peak  and  that  this  lava  may  yet  issue 
as  a  surface  flow.  It  is  confessed,  however,  that  the  idea  is  l)ased  more 
on  hope  than  on  any  scientific  data.  A  visit  in  duly  to  Bum])ass'  Hell 
showed  a  crater-like  depression  filled  witli  hot  springs,  boiling  mud  pots, 
and  solfataras,  yet  it  is  situated  on  the  crest  Df  a  high  ridge,  some  two 
or  three  thousand  feet  above  Hot  Springs  V'alley  and  ^lorgan  Hot 
Springs.  The  longest  diameter  of  the  oval  depression  is  about  a  quarter 
of  a  mile  and  the  height  of  Avails  and  general  appearance  are  similar 
to  those  of  the  old  crater  on  Lassen  Peak.  There  was  no  indication 
that  fresh  lava  flows  had  ever  issued  from  the  crater  of  Bumpass'  Hell ; 
on  the  contrary,  thei'o  was  strong  suggestion  that  the  d(^]nession  had 
developed  in  the  old  lava  by  a  process  the  initial  stages  of  which  must 
have  strongly  resembled  the  present  condition  oi'  Lassen  Peak. 

If  the  writer  were  to  offer  any  forecast  it  would  be  that  the  changes 
going  on  at  the  top  of  Lassen  seem  likely  to  form  a  solfataric  basin  of 
the  same  general  character  as  that  of  Bumpass'  Hell.  However,  while 
there  is  volcanic  life  there  is  a  possibility  of  renewed  lava  flows.  Mean- 
time the  physiographer  has  an  opportunity  of  seeing  within  the  United 
States,  at  least  one  phase  of  volcanic  activity  and  that  on  a  mountain 
recently  occupied  by  alpine  glaciers  and  standing  in  a  great  hna  flow 
studded  with  minor  volcanic  cones,  many  of  them  almost  untouched  by 
erosion — the  Avhole  offering  a  most  inviting  field  for  scientific  in- 
vestigation. 


VOL.  LXXXVI. — 21. 


I)u.   W.  W.  Cami'I'.!:!.!., 

Director  of  the  Lick  Observatory,  I'resideiit  of  the  Americnn  Assoeiation   for  the 
Advancement  of  Science. 


4 


TEE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


307 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


SCIENCE  ON  THE  PACIFIC  COAST 

Progress  in  science  has  always  been 
controlled  by  circumstance.  Had  Har- 
\ey  {possessed  tlie  microscope  that  a 
feAv  years  after  his  demonstration  of 
the  circulation  of  the  blood  Malpighi 
was  applying  with  distinguished  suc- 
cess to  the  investigation  of  anatomical 
problems,  he  would  not  have  failed  to 
see  the  capillary  network  that  escaped 
his  unaided  eye.  And  it  is  a  questio)i 
wlietlier  Darwin  would  have  opened  the 
famous  notebooks  that  led  after  twenty 
years  to  the  ' '  Origin  of  Species ' '  had 
lie  not  been  struck  by  the  distribution 
of  animals  in  South  America  and  the 
Galapagos  Archipelago.  The  embryol- 
ogy of  AmpMoxus  gives  obvious  sup- 
port to  theories  of  the  formation  of  the 
germ  layers  and  of  the  mesoderm  by 
eoelomic  pouches  that  no  student  of 
earthworms  alone,  however  diligent, 
could  have  constructed.  And  there  js 
little  doubt  that  Mendel's  choice  of  the 
garden  pea  for  his  investigations  on 
hybridization  was  a  most  potent  factor 
in  leading  him  so  definitely  and  speed- 
ily to  the  annunciation  of  the  well- 
known  propositions  which  have  changed 
the  entire  course  of  researches  in  he- 
redity during  the  last  fifteen  years.  To 
the  student  of  physics,  the  facts  of  na- 
ture assume  a  quantitative  aspect  that 
students  of  biology  are  only  here  and 
there  beginning  to  recognize.  Simi- 
larly, the  sociologist  and  the  psj'chol- 
ogist  are  now  dependent  upon  biological 
facts  which  have  lost  for  the  biologist 
much  of  their  original  interest  through 
the  development  of  problems  that  de- 
mand investigation  of  still  more  funda- 
mental mechanisms.  In  the  domain  of 
a  single  science  one  finds  the  same  con- 
nection between  experience  and  ideas. 
To  the  investigator  of  the  more  gener- 
alized types  of  organisms  that  respond 
readily  to  a  wide  range  of  environ - 
.nental  conditions,  the  laws  formulated 


by  investigators  of  more  complex  and 
less  plastic  organisms  seem  strangely 
inadequate;  while  to  the  investigator 
who  has  discovered  them  they  possess  a 
clarity  of  outline  that  affords  a  welcome 
substitute  for  more  vaguely  expressed,, 
even  though  more  fundamental,  conclu- 
sions. His  eyes  filled  with  the  image* 
of  secondary  adaptations  in  nature,  a 
behaviorist  may  formulate  his  explana- 
tions in  terms  of  selection  and  survival. 
Whereupon  he  meets  with  spirited  op- 
position from  the  physiologist  whose 
paitsion  it  is  to  reduce  vital  phenomena 
to  the  mechanical  terms  that  have  al- 
ready succeeded  in  freeing  physics  and 
chemistry  from  the  clutch  of  anthropo- 
morphism. 

To  understand  the  Pacific  states  it  is- 
necessary  to  keep  in  mind  this  essential 
fact,  that  ideas  are  dominated  by  ex- 
perience. Geologically,  geographically,, 
faunistically,  socially,  economically,, 
the  Pacific  states  form  a  natural  em- 
l)ire  distinctly  set  off  from  the  rest  of 
the  country.  Mountains  and  deserts' 
have  determined  for  tliem  a  certain  iso- 
lation that  has  governed  their  settle- 
ment, the  character  of  their  population, 
wjiether  plant  or  animal,  the  develop- 
ment of  their  institutions,  their  scien- 
tific progress.  The  region  is  not  only 
new,  but  possesses  many  characteristics 
that  do  not  ordinarily  belong  to  the  ex- 
perience of  citizens  of  other  states. 

Some  of  these  recognition  marks  it 
is  the  purpose  of  this  number  to  con- 
sider. The  much-vaunted  climate  of 
California  runs  the  gamut  from  typical 
desert  conditions  to  Alpine,  from  re- 
gions of  almost  hopeless  aridity  to  re- 
gions where  humidity  becomes  an  ex- 
treme in  the  other  direction.  Such 
diversity  is  strikingly  correlated  with 
floral  peculiarities,  as  one  of  the  papers 
in  this  number  will  show.  Under  the 
atmospliei'ic  conditions  of  central  and 
southern  California    are   found   the   two 


l>i!.  Kri;i;.\K  Wim.hk.m  ak  II  ilcakd. 

I'l-ofcssor  omi'i-itns  of  jigricultiire  in  tin-  Tnivt'i'sity  of  Califoriii.i.  I-"rom  a  bust 
presented  to  Ilie  nniversity  on  ilio  occasion  of  the  rtedication  of  ilic  As,'ricultural 
Building. 


4 


THE  ITIUGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


309 


most  iiiiiKutjuit  astronoiuieal  research 
institutions  in  the  worhl.  The  waters 
of  the  Pacific  ocean  teem  with  life 
which  forms  a  rich  material  liackgroimd 
for  the  investigations  of  the  marine 
naturalist  that  can  be  prosecuted  imder 
unusuall}'  favorable  climatic  conditions. 
This  accounts  for  the  presence  of  a 
chain  of  biological  laboratories  stretcli- 
ing  from  San  Diego  to  Puget  Sound. 
In  the  Mohave  Desert,  fossils  ha^'e  re- 
cently been  discovered  that  throw  im- 
portant light  upon  the  evolution  of  ani- 
mal forms  in  the  old  as  well  as  in  tlie 
new  world.  Northern  California  pos- 
sesses not  only  the  one  active  volcano  in 
tlie  limits  of  the  United  States  but  has 
long  harbored  the  last  living  repre- 
sentative, for  years  unknown  and  ne- 
glected, of  a  tribe  of  Indians  that,  in 
contact  for  lialf  a  centuiy  witli  tlie 
frontiers  of  civilization,  continued  fo 
live  the  life  of  the  stone  age.  It  is 
doubtful  whether  this  remarkable  con- 
trast of  cultures  shows  itself  anywhere 
els«  in  our  country.  ; 

The   barriers   that   have   isolated   tlie  : 
Pacific  coast  have  more  or  less  success-  1 
fully  shut   out  tradition.     Tlie  freedom  ', 
with   whicli  social   and   political  experi- 
ments  have   been   made   in   this   region 
is  only  paralleled  by  the  experimenta- 
tion   that   has    drawn   the   eyes   of   tlie 
world    to    the    pioneer    communities    of 
Xew     Zealand     and     Australia.       That 
freedom    to    experiment    which    is    the  ^ 
life   of   science,   the   necessary   compan- 
ion  to   discovery,   is   usually   denied   in 
our  older  communities  to  social  and  po- 
litical pioneers.     Whether  for   good  or 
ill,  the  citizens  of  the  Pacific  states  have 
in  numerous  cases  voted  themselves  this 
freedom.     The  impressive  record  of  the 
fruits   of   their   boldness   will   speak  in 
this  number  for  itself. 

The  Panama  Canal  will  break  in  upon 
a  certain  long  remoteness.  It  will 
overcome  geographical  barriers.  It  will 
bring  new  elements  to  the  population 
that  will  inevitably  produce  effects  upon 
social  and  political  institutions.  What 
effects  and  how?  The  Mest  is  awaiting 
this  new  experiment  with  keen  zest  and 
high  hopefulness;. 


THE  PACIFIC  DIVISION   OF    THE 
AMEBIC  AN  ASSOCIATION  FOE 
THE    ADVANCEMENT    OF 
SCIENCE 

SixcE  the  Pacific  coast  of  the  United 
States  is  remote  from  the  centers  of 
population  of  this  country,  it  has  been 
ditticult  for  members  of  the  American 
Association  living  within  this  area  to  at- 
tend the  annual  meetings  in  eastern 
cities.  Meanwhile,  members  on  the 
Pacific  coast  have  made  substantial 
contributions  to  the  progress  of  science, 
and  tlie  strength  of  their  interest  in 
organized  science  has  been  shown  by 
the  federation  of  sixteen  societies  or- 
ganized within  this  region  into  the  Pa- 
cific Association  of  Scientific  Societies 
about  four  years  ago.  Four  successful 
annual  meetings  of  the  Pacific  Associa- 
tion have  been  held,  one  at  Stanford 
University,  Palo  Alto,  California,  two 
at  the  University  of  California,  Berk- 
eley and  the  latest  meeting  in  May, 
1911,  at  the  University  of  Washington, 
Seattle. 

In  extending  the  work  of  the  Ameri- 
can Association  actively  on  the  I'acific 
coast  it  was  felt  that  any  new  organi- 
zation must  cooperate  with  the  work  of 
organizations  already  on  the  ground. 
Plans  for  the  merging  of  the  Pacific 
Association  of  Scientific  Societies  with 
a  Pacific  Division  of  the  American  As- 
sociation have  accordingly  been  com- 
,  pleted.  A  constitution  drafted  for  the 
Pacific  Division  has  been  approved  by 
the  American  Association  and  ratified 
by  eleven  of  the  constituent  societies  of 
the  Pacific  Association. 

The  affairs  of  tlie  Pacific  Divis'on 
have  been  placed  in  charge  of  the  Pa- 
cific Coast  Committee  of  the  American 
Association  of  which  the  chairman  is 
Dr.  W.  W.  Cainjibell,  director  of  the 
Lick  Observatory,  and  president  of  the 
American  Association  for  1915.  The 
first  meeting  of  the  Pacific  Division  will 
be  held  in  191(),  and  thereafter  annual 
meetings  will  occur  successively  in  the 
cities  west  of  the  Eocky  ^fountains. 

The  Pacific  Division  as  an  organiza- 
tion consists  of  all  members  of  the 
American    Association    residing    witliin 


W.    i:.    1  >;issMn\  illi'.    rip'icim-apliri'. 
JOIIX   MuiR, 

The  Naturalist  of  the  Pacific  Coast.  Student  of  Wilderness,  whose  recent  death  :s 
deplored  by  all  those  interested  in  science  and  letters. 


THE  PROGRESS  OF  SCIENCE 


3ii 


the  states  of  Washington,  Oregon,  Cali- 
fornia, Idaho,  Utah,  Nevada  and  Ari- 
zona; in  Mexico,  Alaska,  tlie  Hawaiia]i 
and  Philippine  Islands.  No  fee  is  as- 
sessed upon  members  of  tlie  Pacific  Di- 
vision in  addition  to  that  paid  by  reg- 
ular members  elsewhere,  and  members 
enjoy  all  the  benefits  of  relation  with 
the  parent  body,  as  well  as  with  the  Pa- 
cific Division.  The  various  fields  of 
/  scientific  research  are  represented  by 
affiliations  with  local  scientific  societies. 
Several  of  these  societies  are  branches 
of  national  organizations.  Sections  of 
the  division  may  be  establislied  in  any 
field  not  covered  by  a  regularly  organ- 
ized society. 

The  societies  wliich  have  already 
allied  themselves  Avith  the  Pacific  Di- 
vision are:  the  California  .Academy  of 
Sciences,  the  Technical  Society  of  the 
Pacific  Coast,  the  Seismological  Society 
of  America,  the  Cooper  Ornithological 
Club,  the  Gordilleran  Section  of  the 
Geological  Society  of  America,  the  Pa- 
cific Coast  Paleontological  Society,  the 
Astronomical  Society  of  the  Pacific 
Coast,  the  Biological  Society  of  the  Pa- 
cific, the  Puget  Sound  Section  of  the 
American  Chemical  Society,  the  San 
Francisco  Section  of  tlie  Archeological 
Institute  of  America,  and  the  Pacific 
Slope  Association  of  Economic  Ento- 
mologists. 

In  its  scope  the  Pacific  Division  pur- 
poses to  enlist  the  support  of  all  those 
within  the  Pacific  region  who  are  inter- 
ested in  scientific  matters  and  to  estab- 
lish affiliations  with  societies  organized 
in  this  region  for  the  advancement  of 
scientific  work  and  knowledge. 

THE    SAN    FIR  AN  CISCO    MEETING 
OF  THE  AMEBIC  AN  ASSOCIA- 
TION FOB  THE  ADVANCE- 
MENT OF  SCIENCE 

The  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  determined  at 
the  Cleveland  meeting,  in  January, 
3  913,  to  hold  a  special  meeting  in  San 
Francisco  and  vicinity  during  the  year 
of  the  Panama-Pacific  International 
Exposition  at  San  Francisco  and  of  the 


Panama-California  Exposition  at  San 
Diego.  The  Pacific  Coast  Committee 
of  the  American  Association  in  charge 
of  this  meeting  has  chosen  the  week  be- 
ginning Monday,  August  2,  as  the  time 
for  the  meeting.  The  general  sessions 
will  be  held  in  San  Francisco,  while  the 
joint  meetings  of  sections  and  of  so- 
cieties and  the  special  meetings  of  so- 
cieties will  be  held  at  the  University  of 
California  in  Berkeley,  and  on  Wednes- 
day, August  4,  at  Stanford  University, 
rear  Palo  Alto. 

This  will  be  the  first  meeting  of  the 
American  Association  to  be  held  west 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  will,  more- 
over, be  in  a.  sense  a  part  of  the  cele- 
bration commemorating  the  completion 
of  the  Panama  Canal.  Special  atten- 
tion will  be  given  to  investigations  of 
world-wide  interest  for  which  materials 
are  to  be  found  upon  tho  borders  of  the 
Pacific.  Many  of  the  scientific  prob- 
lems of  the  west,  though  peculiar  to  the 
region,  are  of  very  general  interest  in 
their  bearing  upon  fundamental  ques- 
tions of  research.  The  program  for  the 
San  Francisco  meeting  will  be  com- 
posed to  a  considerable  extent  of  contri- 
butions relating  to  such  questions  of 
far-reaching  significance.  Discussions 
of  other  important  scientific  topics  will 
also  be  presented. 

The  opening  session  of  the  meeting 
will  be  held  at  the  Scottish  Eite  Audi- 
torium in  San  Francisco  at  10  A.M., 
Monday.  August  2.  A  general  reception 
will  be  tendered  the  visiting  members 
of  the  association  that  evening.  Four 
notable  addresses  are  planned  for  the 
general  evening  sessions  of  the  week. 
Recent  developments  in  oceanographie 
research  will  be  presented  by  Dr. 
Fridtjof  Nansen,  of  Norway.  Professor 
R.  A.  Daly,  of  Harvard  University,  will 
offer  an  address  upon  geologic  and  bio- 
logic problems  of  the  islands  of  the 
south  Pacific  ocean.  Professor  W.  B. 
Scott,  of  Princeton  University,  will  dis- 
cuss the  influence  of  crustal  movement 
in  the  region  of  the  Panama  Canal  on 
the  paleontologic  relations  of  North 
and  South  America.  Dr.  Paul  S. 
Reinseh,       American       ambassador      to 


iI2 


THE  rOPULAll   SilEXfK  MOXTIILY 


China,  will  present  problems  concerning 
tlie  peoiales  of  tlic  Pacific  area.  Wed- 
nesday evening,  August  4,  is  reserved 
for  dinners  of  scientific  societies. 

Several  important  features  will  mark 
the  section  and  society  meetings  of  the 
week.  At  a  joint  session  on  Tuesday, 
August  2,  of  the  American  Mathemat- 
ical Society,  the  American  Astronom- 
ical Society  and  Section  A  of  the 
American  Association,  Professor  C.  J. 
Keyser  will  give  an  address  n])()n  ''The 
Human  Significance  of  Matliematics, " 
and  Dr.  George  E.  Hale,  of  tlie  Mt.  Wil- 
son Solar  Observatory,  Pasadena,  Cali- 
fornia, will  speak  upon  "The  Work  of 
a    Modern    Observatory. 

Sessions  in  physics  will  ))e  provided 
for  the  discussion,  among  other  toi)ics, 
of  spectroscopic  investigations  of  the 
physics  of  the  air  and  of  higli  potential 
electrical  experimentation. 

Tlie  program  of  the  Geological  So- 
ciety of  America  will  include  at  least 
three  topics— erosion  and  deposition  in 
arid  climates,  diastrophism  on  the  Pa- 
cific coast  and  petrological  problems  of 
the  Pacific  area. 

Meetings  of  the  Paleontologieal  So- 
ciety will  provide  at  the  first  session  a 
series  of  four  addresses  npon  tlie  gen- 
era] criteria  of  correlation.  Tn  tliree 
following  sessions  symposia  will  lie  held 
for  a  comparison  of  the  Triassic,  Cre- 
taceous and  Miocene  faunas  of  the 
Pacific  coast  with  those  of  similar 
l>eriods   in   other   jiai^s  ot'  1li(>   \\()rld. 

The  program  foi"  zoology  will  include 
sessions  for  the  discussion  of  general 
problems  of  zoology,  embryology  and 
development,  problems  of  conservation, 
the  role  of  variation  anil  heredity  in 
evolution,  recent  contributions  from  tlie 
field  of  protozoology,  and  questions  of 
geogia]iliic  disti'ibnl  ion  and  of  niaiine 
biology. 

The  botanii-al  sessions  will  lie  (h>- 
voted  to  problems  centering  upon  gym- 
nosperms,  which  as  a  group  are  so 
widely  distributed  over  the  Pacific 
coast;  npon  the  relation  of  plants  to 
light;  the  geograjihic  distribution  of 
plants  with  especial  referetice  to  the 
origin  of  the  California  flora,  and  upon 
marine    and    freshwater    algte. 


Sessions  for  psychology  will  prob- 
ably consider  problems  of  animal  psy- 
chology, the  testing  of  mental  traits 
and  the  application  of  psychology  to 
law  and  medicine. 

The  anthrojiological  sessions  have' been 
planned  in  conjunction  with  the  Ameri- 
can .\ntliropnlogical  Society  and  the 
•American  Folk-Lore  Society.  The  top- 
ics of  these  sessions  Avill  be — race  in  the 
Pacific  area,  with  especial  reference  to 
tli!^  origin  of  the  American  Indians,  the 
history  of  civilization  in  the  Pacific 
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CHEMISTRY  IN  AMERICA 
Jy  Edgar  Fahs  Smith.  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  Provost  of  the  Umver- 
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!  MODERN   PROBLEMS    OF   BIOLOGY 

i  Lectures  delivered  at  the  University  of  ^^^^-..^/P^J^^^:^ 
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Philadelphia 


THE    UNCAUSED    BEING   /» N  D   THE  CRI- 
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By  E.  Z.  Derr,  M.D. 
A    profoundly  philosophical  work.— San    Francisco  Argo- 

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Sherman.  French  &  Company,  Publishers 
Boston 


THE   MEANING    OF   EVOLUTION 
By  Samuel  C.  Schmuckeb,  Professor  of  the  Biological  Sciences 
in  the  West  Chester  State  Normal  School. 
An  attempt  to  give  to  people  whose  training  is  other  than 
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The  Macmillan  Company,  New  York 


A    NEW   ERA   IN    CHEMISTRY 
By  Harry  C.  Jones,  Professor  of  Physical  Chemistry  in  the 
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Some    of    the   more   important   developments    in  .general 
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New  York,  D.  Van  Nostrand  Company 


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ILLUSTRATED  FLORA  OF  THE  NORTHERN 
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Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York  


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American  Museum  of  Natural  History 
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JOHN  MURRAY,  London 


THE  LIVING   PLANT 
By  William  F.  Ganong.  Ph.D..  Professor  of  Botany  in  Smith 
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This  book  seeks  to  present  to  all  who  have  interest  to  learn 
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P-  ■^'^  +       •   .j.jjg  University  of  Chicago  Press 
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Geographly  in  Russian  History.     Professor  William  E. 
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Geological  Methods  in  Earlier  Days.     Professor  John  J. 
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The  Cinchona  Botanical  Station.     Professor  Duncan  S. 
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The  Indian's  Health  Problem.     Dr.  Charles  A.  Eastman. 
WTiat  Animal  Experimentation  has  done  for  Children. 

Dr.  Henry  Dwight  Chapin. 
Europe's  Dynastic  Slaughter  House.     William  J.  Roe. 
Training  for  Action,     H.  W.  Farwell. 
Delusions.     Dr.  Shepherd  Ivory  Franz. 

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A  History  of  Tahiti.    Dr.  Alfred  Goldsborough  Mayer. 
Popular  Misconceptions  concerning  the  Weather.     Dr. 

Andrew  H.  Palmer. 
Ductless  Glands,  Internal  Secretions  and  Hormonic 

Equilibrium.     Dr.  Fielding  H.  Garrison. 
The  Ethical  Principle  in  Physical  Valuation  for  Rate 

Making.     E.  W.  James. 
Thought  in  Science  and  in  Science  Teaching.      Dr. 

Benjamin  C  Gruenberg. 
The  Problem  for  the  Rural  School.     Professor  J.  B. 

Sears. 
The  Evanescence  of  Facts.     Dr.  Jonathan  Wright. 
Foreign  Association  of  National  Societies.     Professor 

Edward  C.  Piclcering. 
Botanizing  Excursions  in  Borneo.     Professor  W.  W. 

Campbell. 
The  Progress  of  Science  : 

The  Convocation  Week  Meetings  ;  The  Production 

of  Iron  Ore  in  1913  ;  Sir  WUliam  Osier  ;  Scientific 

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